LIBRARY THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA PRESENTED BY ESTATE OF HUBERT ORRISS 1 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJ1SAK. VOL. I. The Publishers hereby announce that all rights of translation and repro- duction abroad are reserved. This volume was entered at the office of the Minister of the Interior (depose au Ministere de FInte'rieur) in March, 1865. The only Editions and Translations sanctioned by the Author are the fol- lowing : French. HENRI PLON, Printer and Publisher of the "History of Julius Casar," 8 Eue Garanciere, Paris. English. CASSELL, PETTER, and GALPIN, Publishers, La Belle Sauvage Yard, Ludgate Hill, London, E.G. American. HARPER and BROTHERS, Franklin Square, New York. (Author- ized by the English Publishers.) German. CHARLES GEROLD, FILS, Printers and Publishers, Vienna. Italian. LEMONNIER, Printer and Publisher, Florence. Portuguese. V. AILLACD, GUILLARD, and Co., Paris, Publishers, and Agents for Portugal and Brazil. Russian. B. M. WOLFF, Bookseller and Publisher, St. Petersburg. Danish, Norwegian, Swedish. CARL B. LORCK, Consul General for Denmark, Bookseller and Publisher, Leipsic. Hungarian.-- MAURICE RATH, Bookseller and Publisher, Pesth. HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. VOL. I. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. 1865. CONTENTS. BOOK I. ROMAN HISTORY BEFORE CLESAR. CHAPTER I. ROME UNDER THE KINGS. PAQI I. THE KINGS FOUND THE ROMAN INSTITUTIONS 1 II. SOCIAL ORGANISATION 3 III. POLITICAL ORGANISATION 6 IV. RELIGION 15 V. RESULTS OBTAINED BY ROYALTY 20 CHAPTER II. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONSULAR REPUBLIC (244-416). I. ADVANTAGE OP THE REPUBLIC 25 II. INSTITUTIONS OF THE REPUBLIC , 31 III. TRANSFORMATION OF THE ARISTOCRACY 36 IV. ELEMENTS OF DISSOLUTION 42 V. RESUME 63 CHAPTER III. CONQUEST OF ITALY (416-488). I. DESCRIPTION OF ITALY 62 II. DISPOSITIONS OF THE PEOPLE OF ITALY IN REGARD TO ROME... 65 III. TREATMENT OF THE VANQUISHED PEOPLES 68 IV. SUBMISSION OF LATIUM AFTER THE FIRST SAMNITE WAR 75 V. SECOND SAMNITE WAR 78 VI. THIRD SAMNITE WAR COALITION OF SAMNITES, ETRUSCANS, UM- BRIANS, AND HERNICI (443-449) 82 VII. FOURTH SAMNITE WAR SECOND COALITION OF THE SAMNITES, ETRUSCANS, UMBRIANS, AND GAULS (456-464) 85 VIII. THIRD COALITION OF THE ETRUSCANS, GAULS, LUCANIANS, AND TARENTUM (469-474) 88 IX. PYRRHUS IN ITALY SUBMISSION OF TARENTUM (474-488) 89 X. PREPONDERANCE OF ROME 92 XL STRENGTH OF THE INSTITUTIONS 97 v i CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. PROSPERITY OF THE .BASIN OF THE MEDITERRANEAN BEFORE THE PUNIC WARS. P4GB I. COMMERCE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN 104 II. NORTHERN AFRICA 105 III. SPAIN ~ 110 IV. SOUTHERN GAUL 114 V. LIGURIA, CISALPINE GAUL, VENETIA, AND ILLTRIA 115 VI. EPIRUS .. 118 VIJ. GREECE 119 VIII. MACEDONIA 124 IX. ASIA MINOR 126 X. KINGDOM OF PONTUS ^ 127 XI. BITHYNIA 130 XII. CAPPADOCIA 131 XIII. KINGDOM OF PERGAMUS 132 XIV. CARIA, LYCIA, AND CILICIA 135 XV. SYRIA 137 XVI. EGYPT 143 XVII. CYRENAICA 14G XVIII. CYPRUS 147 XIX. CRETE 148 XX. RHODES 148 XXI. SARDINIA 151 XXII. CORSICA 152 XXIII. SICILY 152 CHAPTER V. PUNIC WARS AND WARS OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA (488-621). I. COMPARISON BETWEEN ROME AND CARTHAGE 155 II. FIRST PUNIC WAR (490-513) 158 III. WAR OF ILLYRIA (525) 165 IV. INVASION OF THE CISALPINES (528) 167 V. SECOND PUNIC WAR (536-552) 169 VI. RESULTS OF THE SECOND PUNIC WAR 182 VII. THE MACEDONIAN WAR (554) 189 VIII. WAR AGAINST ANTIOCHUS (563) 194 IX. THE WAR IN THE CISALPINE (558-579) 196 X. WAR AGAINST PERSIA (583) 199 XI. MODIFICATION OF ROMAN POLICY 204 XII. THIRD PUNIC WAR (605-608)... 212 XIII. GREECE, MACEDONIA, NUMANTIA, AND PERGAMUS REDUCED TO PROVINCES 215 XIV. SUMMARY... .... 219 CONTENTS. v ji CHAPTER VI. THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA (621-676). FA I. STATE OF THE REPUBLIC 224 II. TIBERIUS GRACCHUS (621) 232 III. CAIUS GRACCHUS (631) 238 IV. WAR OF JUGURTHA (637) 246 V. MARIUS (647) 249 VI. WARS OF THE ALLIES 256 VII. SYLLA (666) 262 VIII. EFFECTS OF SYLLA'S DICTATORSHIP .. 278 BOOK II. HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. CHAPTER I. (654-684.) I. FIRST YEARS OF CAESAR ,... 281 II. CESAR PERSECUTED BY SYLLA (672) 290 III. OESAR IN ASIA (673, 674) 293 IV. CESAR ON HIS RETURN TO ROME (676) 296 V. CESAR GOES TO RHODES (678-680) 299 VI. CESAR PONTIFF AND MILITARY TRIBUNE (680-684) 302 CHAPTER II. (684-691.) I. STATE OF THE REPUBLIC (684) 307 II. CONSULSHIP OF POMPEY AND CRASSUS 316 * III. CESAR QU^STOR (686) 323 IV. THE GABINIAN LAW (687) 327 V. THE MANILIAN LAW (688) 330 -**VI. CESAR CURULE. ^DILE (689) 334 -*"VII. CESAR Judex Qucestionis (660) 339 VIII. CONSPIRACIES AGAINST THE SENATE (690) 340 IX. THE DIFFICULTY OF CONSTITUTING A NEW PARTY 342 CHAPTER III. (691-695.) I. CICERO AND ANTONIUS CONSULS (691) 345 II. AGRARIAN LAW OF RULLUS 347 III. TRIAL OF RABIRIUS (691) 352 T IV. CESAR GRAND PONTIFF (691) 354 v iii CONTENTS. V. CATILINE'S CONSPIRACY 357 VI. ERROR OF CICERO. 379 VII. CESAR PR^TOR (692) 381 VIII. ATTEMPT OF CLODIUS (692) 386 IX. POMPEY'S TRIUMPHAL RETURN*(692) 388 X. DESTINY REGULATES EVENTS 397 CHAPTER IV. (693-695.) I. CKSAR PROPR.ETOR IN SPAIN (693) 402 II. CJGSAR DEMANDS A TRIUMPH AND THE CONSULSHIP (694) 409 . ALLIANCE OF C^SAR, POMPEY, AND CRASSUS 413 . CESAR'S ELECTION 418 CHAPTER V. CONSULSHIP OF C^SAR AND BIBULUS (695). I. ATTEMPTS AT CONCILIATION 421 II. AGRARIAN LAWS 424 '"""III. CAESAR'S VARIOUS LAWS 432 ^ IV. CESAR RECEIVES THE GOVERNMENT OF THE GAULS 445 V. OPPOSITION OF THE PATRICIANS 448 VI. LAW OF CLODIUS EXILE OF CICERO 456 "^ VII. THE EXPLANATION OF CESAR'S CONDUCT 460 PREFACE. HISTORIC truth ought to be no less sacred than re- ligion. If the precepts of faith raise our soul above the interests of this world, the lessons of history, in their turn, inspire us with the love of the beautiful and the just, and the hatred of whatever presents an obstacle to the progress of humanity. These lessons, to be profitable, require certain conditions. It is nec- essary that the facts be produced with a rigorous ex- actness, that the changes political or social be ana- lysed philosophically, that the exciting interest of the details of the lives of public men should not divert attention from the political part they played, or cause us to forget their providential mission. Too often the writer represents the different phases of history as spontaneous events, without seeking in preceding facts their true origin and their natural deduction ; like the painter who, in re-producing the characteristics of Nature, only seizes their picturesque effect, without being able, in his picture, to give their scientific demonstration. The historian ought to be more than a painter; he ought, like the geologist, x PREFACE. who explains the phenomena of the globe, to unfold the secret of the transformation of societies. But, in writing history, by what means are we to arrive at truth? By following the rules of logic. Let us first take for granted that a great effect is al- ways due to a great cause, never to a small one ; in other words, an accident, insignificant in appearance, never leads to important results without a pre-exist- ing cause, which has permitted this slight accident to produce a great effect. The spark only lights up a vast conflagration when it falls upon combustible matters previously collected. Montesquieu thus con- firms this idea : " It is not fortune," he says, " which rules the world. . . . There are general causes, whether moral or physical, which act in every mon- archy, raising, maintaining, or overthrowing it; all accidents are subject to these causes, and if the for- tune of a battle that is to say, a particular cause has ruined a state, there was a general cause which made it necessary that that state should perish through a single battle: in a word, the principal cause drags with it all the particular accidents." (*) If during nearly a thousand years the Romans al- ways came triumphant out of the severest trials and greatest perils, it is because there existed a general cause which made them always superior to their ene- mies, and which did not permit partial defeats and ( l ) Montesquieu, Grandeur et Decadence des Romains, xviii. PREFACE. x j misfortunes to entail the fall of the empire. If the Romans, after giving an example to the world of a people constituting itself and growing great by lib- erty, seemed, after Caesar, to throw themselves blind- ly into slavery, it is because there existed a general reason which by fatality prevented the Republic from returning to the purity of its ancient institu- tions ; it is because the new wants and interests of a society in labour required other means to satisfy them. Just as logic demonstrates that the reason of important events is imperious, in like manner we must recognise in the long duration of an institution the proof of its goodness, and in the incontestable influ- ence of a man upon his age the proof of his genius. The task, then, consists in seeking the vital element which constituted the strength of the institution, as the predominant idea which caused man to act. In following this rule, we shall avoid the errors of those historians who gather facts transmitted by preceding ages, without properly arranging them according to their philosophical importance; thus glorifying that which merits blame, and leaving in the shade that which calls for the light. It is not a minute analysis of the Roman organisation which will enable us to understand the duration of so great an empire, but the profound examination of the spirit of its institu- tions ; no more is it the detailed recital of the most trivial actions of a superior man which will reveal xii PREFACE. the secret of his ascendency, but the attentive inves- tigation of the elevated motives of his conduct. When extraordinary facts attest an eminent genius, what is more contrary to good sense than to ascribe to him all the passions and sentiments of mediocrity? What more erroneous than not to recognise the pre- eminence of those privileged beings who appear in history from time to time like luminous beacons, dis- sipating the darkness of their epoch, and throwing light into the future? To deny this pre-eminence would, indeed, be to insult humanity, by believing it capable of submitting, long and voluntarily, to a dom- ination which did not rest on true greatness and in- contestable utility. Let us be logical, and we shall be just. Too many historians find it easier to lower men of genius, than, with a generous inspiration, to raise them to their due height, by penetrating their vast designs. Thus, as regards Caesar, instead of showing us Rome, torn to pieces by civil wars and corrupted by riches, trampling under foot her ancient institu- tions, threatened by powerful peoples, such as Gauls, Germans, and Parthians, incapable of sustaining her- self without a central power stronger, more stable, and more just ; instead, I say, of tracing this faithful picture, Caesar is represented, from an early age, as already aspiring to the supreme power. If he op poses Sylla, if he disagrees with Cicero, if he allies PREFACE. himself with Pompey, it is the result of that far-sight- ed astuteness which divined everything with a view to bring everything under subjection. If he throws himself into Gaul, it is to acquire riches by pillage (*) or soldiers devoted to his projects ; if he crosses the sea to carry the Roman eagles into an unknown coun- try, but the conquest of which will strengthen that of Gaul, ( 2 ) it is to seek there pearls which were be- lieved to exist in the seas of Great Britain. ( 3 ) If, after having vanquished the formidable enemies of Italy on the other side of the Alps, he meditates an expedition against the Parthians, to avenge the de- feat of Crassus, it is, as certain historians say, because activity was a part of his nature, and that his health was better when he was campaigning. ( 4 ) If he ac- cepts from the Senate with thankfulness a crown of laurel, and wears it with pride, it is to conceal his bald head. If, lastly, he is assassinated by those whom he had loaded with benefits, it is because he sought to make himself king; as though he were to his contemporaries, as well as for posterity, the greatest of all kings. Since Suetonius and Plutarch, such are the paltry interpretations which it has pleased people to give to the noblest actions. But ( l ) Suetonius, Caesar, 22. ( ! ) "Caesar resolved to pass into Britain, the people of which had, in nearly all wars, assisted the Gauls." (Caesar, Gallic War, IV. 20.) ( 3 ) Suetonius, Ctesar, 47. ( 4 ) Appian, Civil Wars, 1. 110, 326, edit. Schweighauiser. PREFACE. by what sign are we to recognise a man's greatness ? By the empire of his ideas, when his principles and his system triumph in spite of his death or defeat. Is it not, in fact, the peculiarity of genius to survive de- struction, and to extend its empire over future gener- ations? Caesar disappeared, and his influence pre- dominates still more than during his life. Cicero, his adversary, is compelled to exclaim : " All the acts of Caesar, his writings, his words, his promises, his thoughts, have more force since his death, than if he were still alive." ( T ) For ages it was enough to tell the world that such was the will of Caesar, for the world to obey it. The preceding remarks sufficiently explain the aim I have in view in writing this history. This aim is to prove that, when Providence raises up such men as Caesar, Charlemagne, and Napoleon, it is to trace out to peoples the path they ought to follow; to stamp with the seal of their genius a new era ; and to accomplish in a few years the labour of many cen- turies. Happy the peoples who comprehend and follow them ! woe to those who misunderstand and combat them ! They do as the Jews did, they cruci- fy their Messiah ; they are blind and culpable : blind, for they do not see the impotence of their efforts to suspend the definitive triumph of good ; culpable, for (') Cicero, Epistolce ad Atticum, XIV. 10. PREFACE. xv they only retard progress, by impeding its prompt and fruitful application. In fact, neither the murder of Csesar, nor the cap- tivity of St. Helena, have been able to destroy irrev- ocably two popular causes overthrown by a league which disguised itself under the mask of liberty. Brutus, by slaying Caesar, plunged Home into the horrors of civil war ; he did not prevent the reign of Augustus, but he rendered possible those of Nero and Caligula. The ostracism of Napoleon by confeder- ated Europe has been no more successful in prevent- ing the Empire from being resuscitated ; and, never- theless, how far are we from the great questions solved, the passions calmed, and the legitimate satis- factions given to peoples by the first Empire ! Thus every day since 1815 has verified the proph- ecy of the captive of St. Helena : " How many struggles, how much blood, how many years will it not require to realise the good which I intended to do for mankind !" (*) Palace of the Tuilenes, March 20th, 1862. NAPOLEON. (') In fact, how many disturbances, civil wars, and revolutions in Europe since 1815! in France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Belgium, Hungary, Greece, and Germany ! JULIUS CAESAR. BOOK I. ROMAN HISTOKY BEFOEE CJESAR. tions - CHAPTER I. ROME UNDER THE KINGS. I. "!N the birth of societies," says Montesquieu, "it is tne chiefs of the republics who form the institution, and in the sequel it is the institution which forms the chiefs of the repub- lics." And he adds, " One of the causes of the pros- perity of Rome was the fact that its kings were all great men. We find nowhere else in history an un- interrupted series of such statesmen and such military commanders." ( J ) The story, more or less fabulous, of the foundation of Rome does not come within the limits of our de- sign ; and with no intention of clearing up whatever degree of fiction these earliest ages of history may contain, we purpose only to "remind our readers that the kind's laid the foundations of those institutions to O which Rome owed her greatness, and so many extra- (') Grandeur et Decadence des Remains. 1 A 2 HISTORY OF JULIUS OESAR. ordinary men who astonished the world by their vir- tues and exploits. The kingly power lasted a hundred and forty-four years, and at its fall Rome had become the most pow- erful state in Latium. The town was of vast extent, for, even at that epoch, the seven hills were nearly all inclosed within a wall protected internally and externally by a consecrated space called the Pomes- rium. (*) This line of inclosure remained long the same, al- though the increase of the population had led to the establishment of immense suburbs, which finally in- closed the Pomoerium itself. ( z ) The Roman territory properly so called was cir- cumscribed, but that of the subjects and allies of Rome was already rather considerable. Some colo- nies had been founded. The kings, by a skilful pol- icy, had succeeded in drawing into their dependence a great number of neighbouring states, and, when Tarquinius Superbus assembled the Hernici, the Lat- ins, and the Volsci, for a ceremony destined to seal his alliance with them, forty -seven different petty (') Titus Livius I. 44. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, speaking of the portion of the rampart between the Porta -^Esquilina and the Porta Collina, says, "Rome is fortified by a fosse thirty feet deep and a hundred or more wide in the narrowest part. Above this fosse rises a wall supported internally by a lofty and wide terrace, so that it cannot be shaken by battering rams, or over- thrown by undermining." (Antiq. Roman., IX. 68.) ( 2 ) "Since that time (the time of Servius Tullius) Rome has been no far- ther enlarged . . . and if, in fa.ce of this spectacle, any one would form a notion of the magnitude of Rome, he would certainly fall into error, for he would not be able to distinguish where the town ends and where it is limited, so close the suburbs come up to the town The Aventine, till the reign of Claudius, remained outside the Pomo3rium, notwithstanding its numerous in- habitants." (Aulus Gellius, XIII. 14. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 13.) ROME UNDER THE KINGS. 3 states took part in the inauguration of the temple of Jupiter Latialis. (') The foundation of Ostia, by Ancus Martius, at the mouth of the Tiber, shows that already the political and commercial importance of facilitating communi- cation with the sea was understood ; while the treaty of commerce concluded with Carthage at the time of the fall of the kingly power, the details of which are preserved by Polybius, indicates more extensive for- eign relations than we might have supposed. ( 2 ) II. The Roman social body, which originated prob- ably in ancient transformations of socie- Social Organisation. . ty, consisted, from the earliest ages, of a certain number of aggregations, called gentes, formed of the families of the conquerors, and bearing some resemblance to the clans of Scotland or to the Ara- bian tribes. The heads of families (patresfamilias) and their members (patricii) were united among themselves, not only by kindred, but also by political and religious ties. Hence arose an hereditary nobili- ty having for distinctive marks family names, special costume, ( 3 ) and waxen images of their ancestors (jus imaginuni). (') Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 49. (*) "By this treaty, the Romans and their allies engage not to navigate be- yond the Bonum Promontorium (a cape situated to the north and opposite Carthage, and now called by navigators the Cape of Porto-Farino) The Carthaginians undertake to respect the Ardeates, the Antiates, the Lau- rentes, the Circeii, the Tarracinians, and indeed all the Latin peoples subject to Rome." (Polybius, III. 22.) (') "When Tarquinius Prisons regulated, with the foresight of a skilful prince, the state of the citizens, he attached great importance to the dress of children of condition ; and he decreed that the sons of patricians should wear the bulla with the robe hemmed with purple : but even this privilege was re- 4 HISTORY OF JULIUS CLESAR. The plebeians, perhaps a race who had been con- quered at an earlier period, were, in regard to the dominant race, in a situation similar to that of the Anglo-Saxons in regard to the Normans in the elev- enth century of our era, after the invasion of England. They were generally agriculturists, excluded original- ly from all military and civil office. (') The patrician families had gathered round them, under the name of clients, either foreigners, or a great portion of the plebeians. Dionysius of Halicarnassus even pretends that Romulus had required that each of these last should choose himself a patron. ( 2 ) The clients cultivated the fields and formed part of the family. ( 3 ) The relation of patronage had created such reciprocal obligations as amounted almost to the ties of kindred. For the patrons, they consisted in giving assistance to their clients in affairs public and private ; and for the latter, in aiding constantly the patrons with their person and purse, and in preserv- ing towards them an inviolable fidelity: they could not cite each other reciprocally in law, or bear wit- ness one against the other, and it would have been a scandal to see them take different sides in a political stricted to the children of those fathers who had exercised a curule dignity ; the sons of other patricians had merely the pnetexta, and it was necessary that even their fathers should have served the prescribed time in the cavalry." (Macrobius, Saturnalia, I. 6.) (') "The plebeians were excluded from all offices, and put only to agricul- ture, the breeding of cattle, and mercantile occupations." (Dionysius of Hali- carnassus, II. 9.) "Numa encouraged the agriculturists; they were excused from service in war, and discharged from the care of municipal affairs." (Di- onysitis of Halicarnassus, II. 76.) ( s ) Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 9. Plutarch, Romulus, 13. ( 3 ) "Agrorum partes attribuerant tennioribus." (Festus, under the word Patres, p. 246, edit. O. Miiller.) EOME UNDER THE KINGS. 5 question. It was a state of things which had some analogy to feudalism; the great protected the little, and the little paid for protection by rents and serv- ices ; yet there was this essential difference, that the clients were not serfs, but free men. Slavery had long formed one of the constituent parts of society. The slaves, taken among foreigners and captives, ( j ) and associated in all the domestic la- bours of the family, often received their liberty as a recompense for their conduct. They were then named freedmen, and were received among the clients of the patron, without sharing in all the rights of a citi- zen. ( 2 ) The gens thus consisted of the reunion of patrician families having a common ancestor; around it was grouped a great number of clients, freedmen, and slaves. To give an idea of the importance of the yentcs in the first ages of Rome, it is only necessary to remind the reader that towards the year 251, a certain Attus Clausus, afterwards called Appius Claudius, a Sabine of the town of Regillum, distin- guished, according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, no less for the splendour of his birth than for his great wealth, took refuge among the Romans with his kins- men, his friends, and his clients, with all their fami- lies, to the number of five thousand men capable of bearing arms. ( 3 ) When, in 275, the three hundred (*) Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 24. ( 2 ) These questions have been the object of learned researches ; but, after an attentive perusal of the works of Beaufort, Niebuhr, Gcettling, Duruy, Mar- quardt, Mommsen, Lange, &c., the difference of opinions is discouraging : we have adopted those which appeared most probable. (*) Dionysius of Halicarnassus, V. 40. Titus Livius, II. 16. 6 HISTORY OF JULIUS Fabii, forming the gens Fabia, offered alone to fight the Veians, they were followed by four thousand cli- ents. (*) The high class often reckoned, by means of its numerous adherents, on carrying measures by it- self. In 286, the plebeians having refused to take part in the consular comitia, the patricians, followed by their clients, elected the consuls ; ( 2 ) and in 296, a Claudius declared with pride that the nobility had no need of the plebeians to carry on war against the Volsci. ( 3 ) The families of ancient origin long formed the state by themselves. To them exclusively the name ofpcpulus applied, ( 4 ) as that of plebs was giv- en to the plebeians. ( 5 ) Indeed, although in the se- quel the word populus took a more extensive signifi- cation, Cicero says that it is to be understood as ap- plying, not to the universality of the inhabitants, but to a reunion of men associated by a community of rights and interests. ( 6 ) III. In a country where war was the principal oc- poiuicai o^anisa- cupation, the political organisation must naturally depend on the military organi- (') Titus Livius, II. 48. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IX. 15. ( a ) Titns Livius, II. 64. ( 3 ) Dionysius of Halicarnassus, X. 15. (*) "They called & decree of the people (scitum populi} the measure which the order of patricians had voted, on the proposal of a patrician, without the participation of the plebs." (See Festus, under the words Scitttm populi, p. 330.) Titus Livius, speaking of the tribunes, puts the following words into the mouth of Appius Claudius: "Non enSm populi, sed plebis, eum magistratum esse." (Titns Livius, II. 56.) ( 5 ) "The plebs was composed of all the mass of the people which was nei- ther senator nor patrician." (See Festus, under the words Scitum populi.) (') " Populns antem non omnis hominum coetus quoquo modo congregatus, sed coetus multitudinis juris consensu et utilitatis communione sociatus." (Cicero, De Repvblica, I. 25. ROME UNDER THE KINGS. 7 sation. A single chief had the superior direction, an assembly of men pre-eminent in importance and age formed the council, while the political rights belong- ed only to those who supported the fatigues of war. The king, elected generally by the assembly of the gentes, (') commanded the army. Sovereign pontiff, legislator, and judge in all sacred matters, he dispensed justice ( 2 ) in all criminal affairs which concerned the Republic. He had for insignia a crown of gold and a purple robe, and for escort twenty-four lictors, ( 3 ) some carrying axes surrounded with rods, others merely rods. (*) At the death of the king, a magis- trate, called interrex, was appointed by the Senate to exercise the royal authority during the five days (') "Populus curiatis eum (Numam) comitiis regem esse jusserat. Tullum Hostilium populus regem, interrege rogante, comitiis curiatis creavit. Servius, Tarquinio sepulto, populum de se ipse consuluit jussusque regnare legem de im- perio suo curiatam tulit." (Cicero, De Republica, II. 13-21.) ( 2 ) ' ' The predecessors of Servius Tullius brought all causes before their tri- bunal, and pronounced judgment themselves in all disputes which regarded the State or individuals. He separated these two things, and, reserving to him- self the cognizance of affairs which concerned the State, abandoned to other judges the causes of individuals, with injunctions, nevertheless, to regulate their judgments according to the laws which he had passed." (Dionysius of Hali- carnassus, IV. 25.) ( 3 ) "The consuls, like the ancient kings, have twelve lictors carrying axes and twelve lictors carrying rods." (Appian, Syrian Wars, 15.) (*) "From that time Tarquinius Superbus carried, during the rest of his life, a crown of gold, a toga of embroidered purple, and a sceptre of ivory, and his throne was also of ivory ; when he administered justice, or walked abroad in the town, he was preceded by twelve lictors, who carried axes surrounded with rods. (Dionysius overlooks the twelve other lictors who carried rods only.) After the kings had been expelled from Rome, the annual consuls continued to use all these insignia, except the crown and the robe with purple embroidery. These two only were withdrawn, because they were odious and disagreeable to the people. But even these were not entirely abolished, since they still used ornaments of gold and dress of embroidered purple, when, after a victory, the Senate decreed them the honours of the triumph." (Dionysius of Halicarnas- sus, III. 62.) 8 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. which intervened before the nomination of his suc- cessor. This office continued, with the same title, un- der the Consular Republic, when the absence of the consuls prevented the holding of the comitia. The Senate, composed of the richest and most illus- trious of the patricians, to the number at first of a hundred, of two hundred after the union with the Sa- bines, and of three hundred after the admission of the gentes minores under Tarquin, was the council of the ancients, taking under its jurisdiction the interests of the town, in which were then concentrated all the in- terests of the State. The patricians occupied all offices, supported alone the burden of war, and consequently had alone the right of voting in the assemblies. The gentes were themselves divided into three tribes. Each, commanded by a tribune, (*) was obliged, under Romulus, to furnish a thousand soldiers (indeed, miles conies from mille) and a hundred horsemen (celeres). The tribe was divided into ten curise ; at the head of each curia was a curion. The three tribes, furnishing three thousand foot soldiers and three hundred horse- men, formed at first the legion. Their number was soon doubled by the adjunction of new cities. ( 2 ) ( 1 ) " The soldiers of Romulus, to the number of three thousand, were divided into three bodies, called ' tribes.' " (Dio Cassius, Fragm., XIV., edit. Gros. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 7. Plutarch, Romulus, 25.) "The name of tribune of the soldiers is derived from the circumstance that the three tribes of the Ramnes, the Luceres, and the Tatiens each sent three to the army." (Varro, De Lingua Latino, V. 81, p. 32, edit. O. Miiller.) ( 2 ) Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 35. Attempts have been made to ex- plain in different ways the origin of the word curia. Some have derived it from the word curare, or from the name of the town of Cures, or from Kvpioc., " a lord:" it seems more natural to trace it to quiris (curis), which had the sig- nification of a lance (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 48. Plutarch, Romulus, HOME UNDER THE KINGS. 9 The curia, into which a certain number of yentes entered, was then the basis of the political and mili- tary organisation, and hence originated the name of Quirites to signify the Roman people. The members of the curia were constituted into re- ligious associations, having each its assemblies and solemn festivals which established bonds of affilia- tion between them. When their assemblies had a political aim, the votes were taken by head ; (*) they decided the question of peace or war ; they nomina- ted the magistrates of the town ; and they confirmed or abrogated the laws. ( 2 ) The appeal to the people, ( 3 ) which might annul the judgments of the magistrates, was nothing more than the appeal to the curia ; and it was by having recourse to it, after having been condemned by the decemvirs, that the survivor of the three Horatii was saved. The policy of the kings consisted in blending to- gether the different races and breaking down the barriers which separated the different classes. To effect the first of these objects, they divided the low- 41), for thus we obtain a term analogous with that of the Middle Agejs, where spear signified a man-at-arms, accompanied by six or eight armed followers. And as the principal aim of the formation of the curia was to furnish a cer- tain number of armed citizens, it is possible that they may have given to the whole the name of a part. We read in Ovid, Fasti, II. lines 477-480 : "Sive quod hasta curia priscis est dicta Sabinis, Bellicua a telo venit in astra deus : Sive suo regi nomen poauere Quirites, Seu quia Romania junxerat ille Cures." ( 1 ) Titus Livins, I. 43. ( 2 ) Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 14, and IV. 20. ( 3 ) "The appeal to the people existed even under the kings, as the books of the pontiffs show." (Cicero, De Republica, II. 31.) 1* 10 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. er class of the people into corporations, (') and aug- mented the number of the tribes and changed their constitution ; ( 2 ) but to effect the second, they intro- duced, to the great discontent of the higher class, ple- beians among the patricians, ( 3 ) and raised the freed- men to the rank of citizens. ( 4 ) In this manner, each curia became considerably increased in numbers; but, as the votes were taken by head, the poor patricians were numerically stronger than the rich. Servius Tullius, though he preserved the curiae, de- prived them of their military organisation, that is, he no longer made it the basis of his system of recruit- ing. He instituted the centuries, with the double aim of giving as a principle the right of suffrage to all the citizens, and of creating an army which was more national, inasmuch as he introduced the plebeians into it; his design was indeed to throw on the richest citizens the burden of war, ( 5 ) which was just, each equipping and maintaining himself at his own cost. The citizens were no longer classified by castes, but according to their fortunes. Patricians and plebeians were placed in the same rank if their income was equal. The influence of the rich predominated, with- out doubt, but only in proportion to the sacrifices re- quired of them. 0) Plutarch, Numa, 17. Pliny, Natural History, XXXIV. 1. (*) " Sen-ins Tullius conformed no longer as aforetime to the ancient order of three tribes, distinguished by origin, but to the four new tribes which he had established by quarters." (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 14.) ( 3 ) Dionysius of Halicarnassus, III. 61. Titus Livius, I. 35. (*) Dionysins of Halicarnassns, IV. 22. ( s ) Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 19. " Servius Tullius, by these means, threw back upon the richest all the costs and dangers of war." (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 20.) ROME UNDER THE KINGS. H Servius Tullius ordered a general report of the pop- ulation to be made, in which every one was obliged to declare his age, his fortune, the name of his tribe and that of his father, and the number of his children and of his slaves. This operation was called census. (*) The report was inscribed on tables, ( 2 ) and, once ter- minated, all the citizens were called together in arms in the Campus Martius. This review was called the closing of the lustrum, because it was accompanied with sacrifices and purifications named lustrations. The term lustrum was applied to the interval of five years between two censuses. ( 3 ) \ The citizens were divided into six classes, ( 4 ) and (') "If Numa was the legislator of the religious institutions, posterity pro- claims Servius as the founder of the order which distinguishes in the Republic the difference of rank, dignity, and fortune. It was he who established the census, the most salutary of all institutions for a people destined to so much greatness. Fortunes, and not individuals, were called upon to support the burdens of the State. The census established the classes, the centuries, and that order which constitutes the ornament of Rome during peace and its strength during war." (Titus Livius, I. 42.) (*) Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 1 6. ( 3 ) "When Servius Tullius had completed the taking of the census, he or- dered all the citizens to assemble in arms in the greatest of the fields situated near the town, and, having arranged the horsemen in squadrons, the footmen in phalanx, and the light-armed men in respective orders, he submitted them to a lustration, by the immolation of a bull, a ram, and a he-goat. He ordered that the victims should be led thrice round about the army, after which he sac- rificed to Mars, to whom this field was dedicated. From that epoch to the pres- ent time the Romans have continued to have the same ceremony performed, by the most holy of magistracies, at the completion of each census; it is what they call a lustrum. The total number of all the Romans enumerated, according to the writing of the tables of the census, gave 300 men less than 85,000." (Dio- nysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 22.) (*) "This good order of government (under Servius Tullius) was sustained among the Romans during several centuries, but in our days it has been changed, and, by force of circumstances, has given place to a more demo- cratic system. It is not that the centuries have been abolished, but the voters were no longer called together with the ancient regularity, and their judgments 12 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAK. into a hundred and ninety-three centuries, according to the fortune of each, beginning with the richest and ending with the poorest. The first class comprised ninety-eight centuries, eighteen of which were knights; the second and fourth, twenty- two ; the third, twenty; the fifth, thirty ; and the sixth, although the most nu- merous, forming only one. (*) The first class contain- ed a smaller number of citizens, yet, having a greater number of centuries, it was obliged to pay more than half the tax, and furnish more legionaries than any other class. The votes continued to be taken by head, as in the curise, but the majority of the votes in each century counted only for one suffrage. Now, as the first class had ninety -eight centuries, while the others, taken together, had only ninety-five, it is clear that the votes of the first class were enough to carry the majority. The eighteen centuries of knights first gave their votes, and then the eighty centuries of the first class : if they were not agreed, appeal was made to the vote of the second class, and so on in succession ; but, says Livy, it hardly ever happened that they were obliged to descend to the last. ( 2 ) Though, according to its original signification, the century should represent a hundred men, it already contained a considerably greater number. Each century was divided into the active part, including all the men from eighteen to forty-six years of age, and the sedentary part, charged have no longer the same equity, as I have observed in my frequent attendance at the comitia." (Dionysius of Halicarnnssus, IV. 21.) (') "The poorest citizens, in spite of their great number, were the last to give their vote, and made but one century," (Dionysins of Halicarnassus, IV. 21.) () Titus Livius, 1.43. ROME UNDER THE KINGS. 13 with the guard of the town, composed of men from forty-six to sixty years old. (*) With regard to those of the sixth class, omitted al- together by many authors, they were exempt from all military service, or, at any rate, they were enrolled only in case of extreme danger. ( 2 ) The centuries of knights, who formed the cavalry, recruited among the richest citizens, tended to introduce a separate order among the nobility, ( 3 ) which shows the importance of the chief called to their command. In fact, the chief of the celeres was, after the king, the first magis- trate of the city, as, at a later period, under the Re- public, the magister equitum became the lieutenant of the dictator. The first census of Servius Tullius gave a force of (') "From the age of seventeen years, they were called to be soldiers. Youth began with that age, and continued to the age of forty-six. At that date old age began." (Aulus Gellius, X. 28. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 16.; (*) Titus Livius speaks only of a hundred and ninety-two centuries ; Diony- sius of Halicarnassus reckons a hundred and ninety-three. "In the Roman plebs, the poorest citizens, those who reported to the census not more than fif- teen hundred ases, were called proletarii; those who were not worth more than three hundred and seventy-five ases, and who thus possessed hardly anything, were called capite censi. Now, the fortune and patrimony of the citizen being for the State a sort of guarantee, the pledge and foundation of his love for his country, the men of the two last classes were only enrolled in case of extreme danger. Yet the position of the proletarii was a little more honourable than that of the capite censi; in times of difficulty, when there was want of young men, they were incorporated in the hastily-formed militia, and equipped at the cost of the State; their name contained no allusion to the mere poll-tax to which they were subjected ; less humiliating, it reminded one only of their destination to give children to their country. The scantiness of their patrimony preventing them from contributing to the aid of the State, they at least contributed to the population of the city." (Aulus Gellius, XVI. 10.) ( 3 ) "Tarquinius Priscus afterwards gave to the knights the organisation which they have preserved to the present time." (Cicero, De Rej>ub/ica, II. 20.) 14 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^SAR. eighty thousand men in a condition to bear arms, ( J ) which is equivalent to tAvo hundred and ninety thou- sand persons of the two sexes, to whom may be add- ed, from conjectures, which, however, are rather vague, fifteen thousand artisans, merchants, or indigent peo- ple, deprived of all rights of citizenship, and fifteen thousand slaves. ( 2 ) (') " It is said that the number of citizens inscribed under this title was 80,000. Fabius Pictor, the most ancient of our historians, adds that this num- ber only includes the citizens in condition to bear arms." (Titus Livius, L 44.) ( ! ) The different censuses of the people furnished by the ancient historians have been explained in different manners. Did the numbers given designate all the citizens, or only the heads of families, or those who had attained the age of puberty ? In my opinion, these numbers in Livy, Dionysius of Halicar- nassus, and Plutarch, applied to all the men in a condition to cany arms, that is, according to the organisation of Servius Tullius, to those from seven- teen to sixty years old. This category formed, in fact, the true Roman citizens. Under seventeen, they were too young to count in the State ; above sixty, they were too old. We know that the aged sexagenarians were called depontani, because they were forbidden the bridges over which they must go to the place of voting. (Festus, under the word sexagenarius, p. 334. Cicero, Pro S. Roscio Amerino, 35.) 80,000 men in condition to carry arms represent, according to the statistics of the present time, fifty-five hundredths of the male part of the population, say 145,000 men, and for the two sexes, supposing them equal in number, 290,000 souls. In fact, in France, in a hundred inhabitants, there are 35 who have.not passed the age of seventeen, 55 aged from seventeen to sixty years, and 10 of more than sixty. In support of the above calculation, Dionysius of Halicarnassus relates that in the year 247 of Rome a subscription was made in honour of Horatius Codes : 300,000 persons, men and women, gave the value of what each might expend in one day for his food. (V. 25.) As to the number of slaves, we find in another passage of Dionysius of Hali- carnassus (IX. 25) that the women, children, slaves, merchants, and artisans amounted to a number triple of that of the citizens. If, then, the number of citizens in condition to carry arms was 80,000, and the rest of the population equalled three times that number, we should have for the total 4 + 80,000=320,000 souls. And, subtracting from this number the 290,000 obtained above, there would remain 30, 000 for the slaves and artisans. Whatever proportion we admit between these two last classes, the result will be that the slaves were at that period not numerous. ROME UNDER THE KINGS. 15 The comitia by centuries were charged with the election of the magistrates, but the comitia by curiae, being the primitive form of the patrician assembly, continued to decree on the most important religious and military affairs, and remained in possession of all which had not been formally given to the centuries. Solon effected, about the same epoch, in Athens, a sim- ilar revolution, so that, at the same time, the two most famous towns of the ancient world no longer took birth as the basis of the right of suffrage, but fortune. Servius Tullius promulgated a great number of laws favourable to the people; he established the principle that the property only of the debtor, and not his person, should be responsible for his debt. He also authorised the plebeians to become the pa- trons of their freedmen, which allowed the richest of the former to create for themselves a clientele resem- bling that of the patricians. (*) IV. Religion, regulated in great part by Numa, was at Rome an instrument of civilisation, but, above all, of government. By bringing into the acts of public or private life the interven- tion of the Divinity, everything was impressed with a character of sanctity. Thus the inclosure of the town with its services, ( 2 ) the boundaries of estates, the transactions between citizens, engagements, and (') Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 9, 23. ( 2 ) "Within the town, the buildings were not allowed to approach the ram- parts, which they now ordinarily touch, and outside a space extended which it was forbidden to cultivate. To all this space, which it was not permitted to inhabit or cultivate, the Romans gave the name of Pomcerium. When, in con- sequence of the increase of the town, the rampart was carried farther out, this consecrated zone on each side was still preserved." (Titus Lirius, I. 44.) 16 HISTOKY OF JULIUS even the important facts of history entered in the sa- cred books, were placed under the safeguard of the gods. (*) In the interior of the house, the gods Lares protected the family ; on the field of battle, the em- blem placed on the standard was the protecting god of the legion. ( 2 ) The national sentiment and belief that Rome would become one day the mistress of Italy was maintained by oracles or prodigies ; ( 3 ) but if, on the ne hand, religion, with its very imperfec- tions, contributed to soften manners and to elevate minds, ( 4 ) on the other it wonderfully facilitated the working of the institutions, and preserved the influ- ence of the higher classes. Religion also accustomed the people of Latium to the Roman supremacy ; for Servius Tullius, in per- suading them to contribute to the building of the Temple of Diana, ( 5 ) made them, says Livy, acknowl- edge Rome for their capital, a claim they had so often resisted by force of arms. The supposed intervention of the Deity gave the power, in a multitude of cases, of reversing any troub- (*) "Founded on the testimony of the sacred books which arc preserved with great care in the temples." (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, XI. 62.) (*) "These precious pledges, which they regard as so many images of the gods." (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VI. 45.) ( 3 ) "Hence is explained the origin of the name given to the Capitol: in digging the foundation of the temple, they found a human head ; and the au- gurs declared that Rome would become the head of all Italy." (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 61.) (*) "This recourse to the opinions of the priests and the observations of re- ligious worship made the people forget their habits of violence and their taste for arms. Their minds, incessantly occupied with religious ideas, acknowl- edged the intervention of Providence in human affairs, and all hearts were penetrated with a piety so lively that good faith and fidelity to an oath reigned in Rome more than fear of laws or punishments." (Titus Livins, I. 21.) (*) Titus LivitiB, I. 45. ROME UNDER THE KINGS. 17 lesome decision. Thus, by interpreting the flight of birds, (*) the manner in which the sacred chickens ate, the entrails of victims, the direction taken by lightning, they annulled the elections, or eluded or retarded the deliberations either of the comitia or of the Senate. No one could enter upon office, even the king could not mount his throne, if the gods had not manifested their approval by what were reputed cer- tain signs of their will. There were auspicious and inauspicious days ; in the latter it was not permitted either to judges to hold their audience, or to the peo- ple to assemble. ( 2 ) Finally, it might be said with Camillus, that the town was founded on the faith of auspices and auguries. ( 3 ) The priests did not form an order apart, but all citizens had the power to enrol themselves in partic- ular colleges. At the head of the sacerdotal hie- rarchy were the pontiffs, five in number, ( 4 ) of whom the king was the chief. ( s ) They decided all ques- (*) "Assemblies of people, levies of troops indeed, the most important operations were abandoned, if the birds did not approve them." (Titus Liv- ius, I. 36.) ( 2 ) "Numa established also the auspicious and inauspicious days, for with the people an adjourment might sometimes be useful." (Titus Livius, 1. 19.) ( 3 ) " We have a town, founded on the faith of auspices and auguries ; not a spot within these walls which is not full of gods and their worshippers ; our solemn sacrifices have their days fixed as well as the place where they are to be made." (Titus Livius, V. 52, Speech of Camillus, VI. &c.) () Cicero, De Republica, II. 14. (*) "All religious acts, public and private, were submitted to the decision of the pontiff; thus the people knew to whom to address themselves, and dis- orders were prevented which might have brought into religion the neglect of the national rites or the introduction of foreign ones. It was the same pontiff's duty also to regulate what concerned funerals, and the means of appeasing the Manes, and to distinguish, among prodigies announced by thunder and other phenomena, those which required an expiation." (Titus Livius, I. 20.) B 18 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. tions which concerned the liturgy and religious wor- ship, watched over the sacrifices and ceremonies that they should be performed in accordance with the tra- ditional rites, (*) acted as inspectors over the other minister of religion, fixed the calendar, ( 2 ) and were responsible for their actions neither to the Senate nor to the people. ( 3 ) After the pontiffs, the first place belonged to the curions, charged in each curia with the religious func- tions, and who had at their head a grand curion ; then came the flamens, the augurs, ( 4 ) the vestals charged with the maintenance of the sacred fire ; the twelve Salian priests, ( 5 ) keepers of the sacred bucklers, named ancilia; and lastly, tliQfeciales, heralds at arms, to the number of twenty, whose charge it was to draw up treaties and secure their execution, to declare war, and to watch over the observance of all international relations. ( 6 ) (*) "The grand pontiff exercises the functions of interpreter and diviner, or rather of hierophant. He not only presides at the public sacrifices, but he also inspects those which are made in private, and takes care that the ordi- nances of religious worship are not transgressed. Lastly, it is he who teaches what each individual ought to do to honour the gods and to appease them." (Plutarch, Nwna, 12.) ( 5 ) "Numa divided the year into twelve months, according to the moon's courses; he added January and February to the year." (Titus Livius, I. 19. Plutarch, Nvma, 18.) (*) Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 73. (*) Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 64. ( 4 ) Salian is derived from salire (to leap, to dance). (Dionysius of Halicar- nassus, II. 70.) It was their duty, on certain occasions, to execute sacred dances, and to chant hymns in honour of the god of war. ( 6 ) Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 72. "The name of fedales is derived from the circumstance that they presided over the public faith between peo- ples ; for it was by their intervention that war when undertaken assumed the character of a just war, and, that once terminated, peace was guaranteed by a treaty. Before war was undertaken, some of the fedales were sent to make whatever demands had to be made." (Varro, De Lingua Latina, V. 8G.)->- ROME UNDER THE KINGS. 19 There were also religious fraternities (sodalitates), instituted for the purpose of rendering a special wor- ship to certain divinities. Such was the college of the fratres Arvales, whose prayers and processions called down the favour of Heaven upon the harvest ; such also was the association having for its mission to celebrate the festival of the Lupercalia, founded in honour of the god Lupercus, the protector of cattle and destroyer of wolves. The gods Lares, tutelar ge- nii of towns or families, had also their festival insti- tuted by Tullus Hostilius, and celebrated at certain epochs, during which the slaves were entirely exempt from labour. (*) The kings erected a great number of temples for the purpose of deifying, some, glory, ( 2 ) others, the virtues, ( 3 ) others, utility, ( 4 ) and others, gratitude to the gods. ( 5 ) The Romans loved to represent everything by ex- "If allies complained that the Romans had done them wrong, and demanded reparation for it, it was the business of the fedales to examine if there were any violation of treaty." (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 72.) These fecial priests had been instituted by Numa, the mildest and most just of kings, to be guardians of peace, and the judges and arbiters of the legitimate motives for undertaking war. (Plutarch, Camillus, 20.) ( : ) Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 14. Pliny, Natural History, XXI. 8. ( 2 ) Numa raised a temple to Romulus, whom he deified under the name of Quiriims. (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 63.) ( 3 ) " Temple of Vesta, emblem of chastity ; temple to Public Faith ; raised by Numa." (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 65 and 75.) (*) " The god Terminus ; the festival in honour of Pales, the goddess of shepherds ; Saturn, the god of agriculture ; the god of fallow-grounds, pas- ture," &c. (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 74.) ( 5 ) " After having done these things in peace and war, Servius Tullius erect- ed two temples to Fortune, who appeared to have been favourable to him all his life, one in the oxen-market, the other on the banks of the Tiber, and he gave her the surname of Virilis, which she has preserved to the present day among the Romans." (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 270 20 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. ternal signs : thus Numa, to impress better the verity of a state of peace or war, raised a temple to Janus, which was kept open during war and closed in time of peace ; and, strange to say, this temple was only closed three times in seven hundred years. ( J ) V. The facts which precede are sufficient to con- obtained b y vince us tliat tte Roman Republic ( 2 ) had already acquired under the kings a strong organisation. ( 3 ) Its spirit of conquest overflowed beyond its narrow limits. The small states of Lati- um which surrounded it possessed, perhaps, men as enlightened and citizens equally courageous, but there certainly did not exist among them, to the same de- gree as at Rome, the genius of war, the love of coun- try, faith in high destinies, the conviction of an incon- testible superiority, powerful motives of activity, in- stilled into them perseveringly by great men during two hundred and forty-four years. Roman society was founded upon respect for fami- ly, for religion, and for property; the government, ( l ) "The Temple of Janus had been closed twice since the reign of Numa: the first time by the consul Titus Manlius, at the end of the first Punic war ; the second, when the gods granted to our age to see, after the battle of Actium, Caesar Augustus Imperator give peace to the universe." (Titus Livius, I. 19.) And Plutarch says, in his Life of Numa, xx., "Nevertheless, this temple was closed after the victory of Caesar Augustus over Antony, and it had previously been closed under the consulate of Marcus Atilius and of Titus Manlius, for a short time, it is true ; it was almost immediately opened again, for a new war broke out. But, during the reign of Numa, it was not seen open a single day." ( a ) We employ intentionally the word republic, because all the ancient an- thors give this name to the State, under the kings as well as under the emper- ors. It is only by translating faithfully these denominations that we can form an exact idea of ancient societies. ( 3 ) "We acknowledge how many good and useful institutions the Republic owed to each of our kings." (Cicero, De Republica, II. 21.) ROME UNDER THE KINGS. 21 upon election ; the policy, upon conquest. At the head of the State is a powerful aristocracy, greedy of glory, but, like all aristocracies, impatient of kingly power, and disdainful towards the multitude. The kings strive to create a people side by side with the privileged caste, and introduce plebeians into the Sen- ate, freedmen among the citizens, and the mass of cit- izens into the ranks of the soldiery. Family is strongly constituted ; the father reigns in it absolute master, sole judge (*) over his children, his wife, and his slaves, and that during all their lives : yet the wife's position is not degraded as among the barbarians ; she enjoys a community of goods with her husband ; mistress of her house, she has the right of acquiring property, and shares equally with her brothers the paternal inheritance. ( 2 ) The basis of taxation is the basis of recruiting and of political rights ; there are no soldiers but citizens ; there are no citizens without property. The richer a man is, the more he has of power and dignities ; but he has more charges to support, more duties to fulfil. In fighting, as well as in voting, the Romans are di- vided into classes according to their fortunes, and in the comitia, as on the field of battle, the richest are in the first ranks. Initiated in the apparent practice of liberty, the (') "Among the Romans, the children possess nothing of their own during their father's life. He can dispose not only of all the goods, but even of the lives of his children." (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VIII. 79; II. 25.) ( 3 ) Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II., 25, 26. "From the beginning," says Mommsen, "the Roman family presented, in the moral order which reigned among its members, and their mutual subordination, the conditions of a supe- rior civilisation." (Roman History, 2nd edit., I., p. 54.) 22 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. people is held in check by superstition and respect for the high classes. By appealing to the intervention of the Divinity in every action of life, the most vulgar things become idealised, and men are taught that above their material interests there is a Providence which directs their actions. The sentiment of right and justice enters into their conscience, the oath is a sacred thing, and virtue, that highest expression of duty, becomes the general rule of public and private life. ( a ) Law exercises its entire empire, and, by the institution of the feciales, international quest-ions are discussed with a view to what is just, before seeking a solution by force of arms. The policy of the State consists in drawing by all means possible the peo- ples around under the dependence of Rome; and, when their resistance renders it necessary to conquer them, ( 2 ) they are, in different degrees, immediately associated with the common fortune, and maintained in obedience by colonies advanced posts of future dominion. ( 3 ) (') " Morals were so pure that, during two hundred and thirty years, no hus- band was known to repudiate his wife, nor any woman to separate from her husband." (Plutarch, Parallel of Theseus and Romulus.} ( 2 ) Cicero admires the profound wisdom of the first kings in admitting the conquered enemies to the number of the citizens. "Their example," he says, ' ' has become an authority, and our ancestors have never ceased granting the rights of citizens to conquered enemies." {Oration for Balbus, xxxi.) ( 3 ) ROMAN COLONIES (COLONIZE cmuM CUM JURE SUFFKAOII ET HONORUM). First period : 1-244 (under the kings). Ccenina (Sabine). Unknown. Antemnce. (Sabine). Unknown. Cameria (Sabine). Destroyed in 252. Unknown. Meduttia (Sabine). SanC- Angela. See Gell., Topogr. of Rome, 100. Crustvmeria (Sabine). Unknown. Fidence (Sabine). Ruins near Giubileo and Serpentina. Re-colonised in 326. Destroyed, according to an hypothesis of M. Madvig. ROME UNDER THE KINGS. 23 The arts, though as yet rude, find their way in with the Etruscan rites, and corne to soften manners, and lend their aid to religion ; everywhere temples arise, circuses are constructed, (*) great works of public util- ity are erected, and Rome, by its institutions, paves the way for its pre-eminence. Almost all the magistrates are appointed by elec- tion ; once chosen, they possess an extensive power, and put in motion resolutely those two powerful le- vers of human actions, punishment and reward. To all citizens, for cowardice before the enemy or for an infraction of discipline, ( 2 ) the rod or the axe of the lictor ; to all, for noble actions, crowns of honour ; ( 3 ) to the generals, the ovation, the triumph, ( 4 ) the best Collatia. Ostia (the mouth of the Tiber). Ruins between Torre Bovacciano and Ostia. LATIN COLONIES (COLONLE LATINS). First period : 1-244 (under the kings). We cannot mention with certainty any Latin colony founded at this epoch, from ancient authorities. The colonies of Signia and Circeii were both re- colonised in the following period, and we shall place them there. ( 1 ) "Tarquin embellished also the great circus between the Aventine and Palatine hills ; he was the first who caused the covered seats to be made round this circus." (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, III. 68.) ( 2 ) Titus Livius, I. 44. "Immediately the centurions, whose centuries had taken flight, and the antesignani who had lost their standard, were condemned to death: some had their heads cut off; others were beaten to death. As to the rest of the troops, the consul caused them to be decimated ; in every ten soldiers, he upon whom the lot fell was conducted to the place of execution, and suffered for the others. It is the usual punishment among the Romans for those who have quitted their ranks or abandoned their standards." (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IX. 1.) ( 3 ) " Romulus placed upon their hair a crown of laurels." (Plutarch, Rom- ulus, xx.) (*) " The Senate and the people decreed to King Tarquin the honours of the triumph." (Combat of the Romans and Etruscans, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, III. 60.) "An ovation differs from a triumph, first, because he who receives the honours of it enters on foot at the head of the army, and not mounted in a 24 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^SAR. of the spoils ; (*) to the great men, apotheosis. To honour the dead, and for personal relaxation after their sanguinary struggles, the citizens crowd to the games of the circus, where the hierarchy gives his rank to each individual. ( 2 ) Thus Home, having reached the third century of her existence, finds her constitution formed by the kings with all the germs of grandeur which will de- velop themselves in the sequel. Man has created her institutions: we shall see now how the institutions are going to form the men. car ; secondly, that he has neither the crown of gold, nor the toga embroidered with gold and of different colours, but he carries only a white trabea bordered with purple, the ordinary costume of the generals and consuls. Besides having only a crown of laurel, he does not carry a sceptre. This is what the little triumph has less than the great; in all other respects there is no difference." (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, V. 47.) (') "Romulus kills Acron, routs the enemies, and returns to offer to Jupiter Feretrius the opima spolia taken from that prince. "After Romulus, Cornelius Cossus was the first who consecrated to the same gods similar spoils, having slain with his own hand, in a combat where he com- manded the cavalry, the general of the Fidenates. " We must not separate the example of M. Marcellus from the two preceding. He had the courage and intrepidity to attack on the banks of the P6, at the head of a handful of horsemen, the king of the Gauls, though protected by a numerous army ; he struck off his head, and carried off" his armour, of which he made an offering to Jupiter Feretrius. (Year of Rome 531.) "The same kind of bravery and combat signalised T. Manlius Torquatns, Valerius Corvus, and Scipio JEmilianus. These warriors, challenged by the chieftains of the enemies, made them bite the dust ; but, as they had fought under the auspices of a superior chief, they did not offer their spoils to Jupi- ter." (Year of Rome 392, 404, 602.) (Valerius Maximns, III. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.) ( a ) "Tarquin divided the seats (of the great circus) among the thirty curia?, assigning to each the place which belonged to him. " (Dionysius of Halicar- nassus, III. 68.) "It was then (after the war against the Latins) that the site was chosen which is now called the great circus. They marked out in it the particular places for the senators and for the* knights." (Titus Livius, I. 35.) CHAPTER II. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONSULAR REPUBLIC. (From 244 to 416.) I. THE kings are expelled from Rome. They dis- AdvantageoftheRe- appear because their mission is accom- public- plished. There exists, one would say, in moral as well as physical order, a supreme law which assigns to institutions, as to certain beings, a fated limit, marked by the term of their utility. Un- til this providential term has arrived, no opposition prevails ; conspiracies, revolts, everything fails against the irresistible force which maintains what people seek to overthrow ; but if, on the contrary, a state of things immovable in appearance ceases to be useful to the progress of humanity, then neither the empire of traditions, nor courage, nor the memory of a glori- ous past, can retard by a day the fall which has been decided by destiny. Civilisation appears to have been transported from Greece into Italy to create there an immense focus from which it might spread itself over the whole world. From that moment the genius of force and imagination must necessarily preside over the first times of Rome. This is what happened under the kings, and, so long as their task was not accomplish- ed, it triumphed over all obstacles. In vain the sen- 2 26 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. ators attempted to obtain a share in the power by each exercising it for five days ; (*) in vain men's pas- sions rebelled against the authority of a single chief: all was useless, and even the murder of the kings only added strength to royalty. But the moment once ar- rived when kings cease to be indispensable, the sim- plest accident hurls them down. A man outrages a woman, the throne gives way, and, in falling, it di- vides itself into two : the consuls succeed to all the prerogatives of the kings. ( 2 ) Nothing is changed in the Republic, except that instead of one chief, elect- ive for life, there will be henceforward two chiefs, elected for a year. This transformation is evidently the work of the aristocracy; the senators will possess the government, and, by these annual elections, each hopes to take in his turn his share in the sovereign power. Such is the narrow calculation of man and his mean motive of action. Let us see what superior impulse he obeyed without knowing it. That corner of land, situated on the bank of the Tiber, and predestined to hold the empire of the world, enclosed within itself, as we see, fruitful germs ( l ) "The hundred senators were divided into ten decuries, and each chose one of its members to exercise this authority. The power was collective : one alone carried the insignia of it, and walked preceded by the lictors. The du- ration of this power was for five days, and each exercised it in turn. . . . The plebs was not long before it began to murmur. Its servitude had only been aggravated ; instead of one master, it had a hundred. It appeared dis- posed to suffer only one king, and to choose him itself." (Titus Livius, 1. 17.) ( ! ) "For the rest, this liberty consisted at first rather in the annual election of the consuls than in the weakening of the royal power. The first consuls as- sumed all its prerogatives and all its insignia ; only it was feared that, if both possessed the fasciae, this solemnity might inspire too much terror, and Brutus owed to the deference of his colleague the circumstance of possessing them first." (Titus Livius, II. 1.) ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONSULAR EEPUBLIC. 27 which demanded a rapid expansion. This could only be effected by the absolute independence of the most enlightened class, seizing for its own profit all the prerogatives of royalty. The aristocratic government has this advantage over monarchy, that it is more immutable in its duration, more constant in its de- signs, more faithful to traditions, and that it can dare everything, because where a great number share the responsibility, no one is individually responsible. Rome, with its narrow limits, had no longer need of the concentration of authority in a single hand, but it was in need of a new order of things, which should give to the great free access to the supreme power, and should second, by the allurement of honours, the development of the faculties of each. The grand ob- ject was to create a race of men of choice, who, suc- ceeding each other with the same principles and the same virtues, should perpetuate, from generation to generation, the system most calculated to assure the greatness of their country. The fall of the kingly power was thus an event favourable to the develop- ment of Rome. The patricians monopolised during a long time the civil, military, and religious employments, and, these employments being for the most part annual, there was in the Senate hardly a member who had not filled them; so that this assembly was composed of men formed to the combats of the Forum as well as to those of the field of battle, schooled in the difficul- ties of the administration, and indeed worthy, by an experience laboriously acquired, to preside over the destinies of the Republic. 28 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. They were not classed, as men are in our modern society, in envious and rival specialities ; the warrior was not seen there despising the civilian, the lawyer or orator standing apart from the man of action, or the priest isolating himself from all the others. In order to raise himself to State dignities, and merit the suffrages of his fellow-citizens, the patrician was con- strained, from "his youngest age, to undergo the most varied trials. He was required to possess dexterity of body, eloquence, aptness for military exercises, the knowledge of civil and religious laws, the talent of commanding an army or directing a fleet, of adminis- trating the town or commanding a province ; and the obligation of these different apprenticeships not only gave a full flight to all capacities, but it united, in the eyes of the people, upon the magistrate invested with different dignities, the consideration attached to each of them. During a long time, he who was hon- oured with the confidence of his fellow-citizens, be- sides nobility of birth, enjoyed the triple prestige given by the function of judge, priest, and warrior. An independence almost absolute in the exercise of command contributed further to the development of the faculties. At the present day, our constitutional habits have raised distrust towards power into a prin- ciple ; at Rome, trust was the principle. In our mod- ern societies, the depositary of any authority what- ever is always under the restraint of powerful bonds; he obeys a precise law, a minutely detailed rule, a superior. The Roman, on the contrary, abandoned to his own sole responsibility, felt himself free from all shackles; he commanded as master within the ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONSULAR EEPUBLIC. 29 sphere of his attributes. The counterpoise of this in- dependence was the short duration of his office, and the right, given to every man, of accusing each magis- trate at the end of it. The preponderance of the high class, then, rested upon a legitimate superiority, and this class, besides, knew how to work to its advantage the popular pas- sions. They desired liberty only for themselves, but they knew how to make the image glitter in the eyes of the multitude, and the name of the people was al- ways associated with the decrees of the Senate. Proud of having contributed to the overthrow of the power of one individual, they took care to cherish among the masses the imaginary fear of the return of kingly power. In their hands the Jiate of tyrants will become a weapon to be dreaded by all who shall seek to raise themselves above their fellows, either by threatening their privileges, or by acquiring too much popularity by their acts of benevolence. Thus, under the pretext, renewed incessantly, of aspiring to kingly power, fell the consul Spurius Cassius, in 269, because he had presented the first agrarian law ; Spurius Melius, in 315, because he excited the jeal- ousy of the patricians by distributing wheat to the people during a famine ; (*) in 369, Manlius, the sav- iour of Kome, because he had expended his fortune in relieving insolvent debtors. ( 2 ) Thus will fall vic- tims to the same accusation the reformer Tiberius ( l ) "The death of Melius was justified," said Quinctius, "to appease the people, although he might be innocent of the crime of aspiring to the kingly power." (Titus Livius, IV. 15.) ( s ) "From these inflexible hearts came a sentence of death, which was odi- ous to the judges themselves." (Titus Livius, VI. 20.) 80 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^SAR. Sempronius Gracchus, and lastly, at a later period, the great Caesar himself. But if the pretended fear of the return of the an- cient regime was a powerful means of government in the hands of the patricians, the real fear of seeing their privileges attacked by the plebeians restrained them within the bounds of moderation and justice. In fact, if the numerous class, excluded from all of- fice, had not interfered by their clamours to set limits to the privileges of the nobility, and thus compelled it to render itself worthy of power by its virtues, and re-invigorated it, in some sort, by the infusion of new blood, corruption and arbitrary spirit would, some ages earlier, have dragged it to its ruin. A caste which is not renewed by foreign elements is con- demned to disappear ; and absolute power, whether it belongs to one man or to a class of individuals, fin- ishes always by being equally dangerous to him who exercises it. This concurrence of the plebeians ex- cited in the Republic a fortunate emulation which produced great men, for, as Machiavelli says : ( a ) "The fear of losing gives birth in men's hearts to the same passions as the desire of acquiring." Although the aristocracy had long defended with obstinacy its priv- ileges, it made opportunely useful concessions. Skil- ful in repairing incessantly its defeats, it took again, under another form, what it had been constrained to abandon, losing often some of its attributes, but pre- serving its prestige always untouched. Thus, the characteristic fact of the Roman institu- tions was to form men apt for all functions. As long (') .Discourse on Titus Livius, I. 5. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONSULAR REPUBLIC. 31 as on a narrow theatre the ruling class had the wis- dom to limit its ambition to promoting the veritable interests of their country, as the seduction of riches and unbounded power did not come to exalt it be- yond measure, the aristocratic system maintained it- self with all its advantages, and overruled the insta- bility of institutions. It alone, indeed, was capable of supporting long, without succumbing, a regime in which the direction of the State and the command of the armies passed annually into different hands, and depended upon elections the element of which is ever fickle. Besides, the laws gave rise to antagonisms more calculated to cause anarchy than to consolidate true liberty. Let us examine, in these last relations, the constitution of the Republic. II. The two consuls were originally generals, judges, motions of the and administrators ; equal in powers, they Republic. were often in disagreement, either in the Forum, ( x ) or on the field of battle. ( 2 ) Their dissen- (*) Proofs of the disagreement of the two consuls : " Cassius brought secret- ly as many Latins and Hernici as he possibly could to have their suffrages ; there arrived in Rome such a great number, that in a short time the town was full of strangers. Virginius, who was informed of it, cansed a herald to pro- claim in all the public places that all those who had no domicile in Rome should withdraw immediately ; but Cassius gave orders contrary to those of his colleague, forbidding any one who had the right of Roman freedom to quit the town until the law was confirmed and received." (Year of Rome 268.) (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VIII. 72.) "Quinctius, more indulgent than his colleague, willed the concession to the people of all their just and reasonable demands; Appius, on the contrary, was willing to die rather than to yield." (Year of Rome 283.) (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IX. 48.) ( 2 ) ' ' The two consuls were of the most opposite tempers, and were always in discord (dissimiles discordesque)." (Titus Livius, XXII. 41.) "While they lost their time in quarrels rather than in deliberations." (Titus Livius, XXII. 45.) 32 HISTORY OF JULIUS CLESAR. sions were repeated many times until the consulate of Caesar and Bibulus; and they were liable to be- come the more dangerous as the decision of one con- sul was annulled by the opposition of his colleague. On the other hand, the short duration of their magis- tracy constrained them either to hurry a battle in or- der to rob their successor of the glory, ( a ) or to inter- rupt a campaign in order to proceed to Rome to hold the comitia. The defeats of the Trebia and Cannae, with that of Servilius Caepio by the Cimbri, ( 3 ) were fatal examples of the want of unity in the direction of war. In order to lessen the evil effects of a simultaneous exercise of their prerogatives, the consuls agreed to take in campaign the command alternately day by day, and at Rome each to have the fasces during a month ; but this innovation had also vexatious conse- quences. ( 3 ) It was even thought necessary, nine years after the fall of the kings, to have recourse to the dictatorship ; and this absolute authority, limited to six months, that is, to the longest duration of a campaign, only remedied temporarily, and under ex- traordinary circumstances, the want of power concen- trated in a single individual. (') Titus Livius, XXI. 52. Dio Cassias, Fragments, CCLXXf. edit. Gros. (*) Titus Livius, XXI. 52. ( 3 ) "In the Roman army the two consuls enjoyed an equal power; but the deference of Agrippa in concentrating the authority in the hands of his col- league, established the unity so necessary for the success of great enterprises." (Titus Livius, III. 70.) "The two consuls commanded often both in the day of battle." (Titus Livius, Battle of Mount Vesuvius, VIII. 9 ; Battle o/Senti- WMWI, X. 27. ) " A fatal innovation ; from that time each had in view his per- sonal interest, and not the general interest, preferring to see the Republic ex- perience a check than his colleague covered with glory, and evils without num- ber atHicU-d the fatherland." (Dio Cassius, Fragments, LI. edit. Gros.) ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONSULAR REPUBLIC. 33 This dualism and instability of the supreme au- thority were not, therefore, an element of strength; the unity and fixity of direction necessary among a people always at war had disappeared ; but the evil would have been more serious if the conformity of interests and views of individuals belonging to the same caste had not been there to lessen it. The man was worth more than the institutions which had formed him: The creation of tribunes of the people, whose part became subsequently so important, was, in 260, a new cause of discord ; the plebeians, who composed the greater part of the army, claimed to have their mili- tary chiefs for magistrates; ( ] ) the authority of the tribunes was at first limited: we may convince our- selves of this by the following terms of the law which established the office : ( 2 ) " Nobody shall constrain a tribune of the people, like a man of the commonalty, to do anything against his will; it shall not be permitted either to strike him, or to cause him to be maltreated by another, or to slay him or cause him to be slain." ( 3 ) We may judge by this the degree of inferiority to (') " They called tribunes of the people those who, from tribunes of the sol- diers, which they were first, were charged with the defence of the people during its retreat at Crustumerium." (Varro, De*Lingua Latino, V. 81, edition of O. Miiller.) ( 2 ) " The discontented obtained from the patricians the confirmation of their magistrates ; afterwards they demanded of the Senate the permission to elect annually two plebeians (ediles) to second the tribunes in all things in which they might have need of aid, to judge the causes which these might entrust into their hands, to have care of the sacred and public edifices, and to ensure the supplying of the market with provisions." (Year of Rome 260.) (Diony- sius of Halicarnassus, VI. 90.) ( 3 ) Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VI. 89. 2* C 34 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. which the plebeians were reduced. The veto of the tribunes could nevertheless put a stop to the propo- sal of a law, prevent the decisions of the consuls and Senate, arrest the levies of troops, prorogue the con- vocation of the comitia, and hinder the election of magistrates. (*) From the year 297, their number was raised to ten, that is, two for each of the five classes specially subject to the recruitment ; ( 2 ) but the plebeians profited little by this measure ; the more the number of tribunes was augmented, the eas- ier it became for the aristocracy to find among them an instrument for its designs. Gradually their influ- ence increased ; in 298, they laid claim to the right of convoking the Senate, and yet it was still a long time before they formed part of that body. ( 3 ) As to the comitia, the people had there only a fee- ble influence. In the assemblies by centuries, the vote of the first classes, composed of the richest citi- zens, as we have seen, prevailed over all the others ; (') The tribunes oppose the enrolment of troops. (Year of Rome 269.) (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VIII. 81.) "Licinius and Sextius re-elected tribunes of the people, allowed no curule magistrate to be elected ; and, as the people continued to re-appoint the two tribunes, who always threw out the elections of the military tribunes, the town remained five years deprived of magistrates." (Year of Rome 378.) (Titus Livius, VI. 35.) "Each time the consuls convoked the people to confer the consulship on the candidates, the tribunes, in virtue of their powers, prevented the holding of the assemblies. So also, when these assembled the people to make the election, the consuls opposed it, pretending that the right of convoking the people and collecting the suffrages belonged to them alone." (Year of Rome 271.) (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VIII. 90.) " Sometimes the tribunes prevented the patricians from assem- bling for the election of the interrex, sometimes they forbade the interrex him- self making the senatus consultus for the consular comitia." (Year of Rome 333.) (Titus Livius, IV. 43.) ( 5 ) Titus Livius, III. 30. ( 3 ) Dionysius of Halicarnassus, X. 31. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONSULAR REPUBLIC. #5 in the comitia by curise, the patricians were absolute masters ; and when, towards the end of the third cen- tury, the plebeians obtained the comitia by tribes, (*) this concession did not add sensibly to their preroga- tives. It was confined to the power of assembling in the public places where, divided according to tribes, they placed their votes in urns for the election of their tribunes and ediles, previously elected by the centuries ; ( 2 ) their decisions concerned themselves only, and entailed no obligations on the patricians ; so that the same town then offered the spectacle of two cities each having its own magistrates and laws. ( 3 ) (') "The most remarkable event of this year (the year of Rome 282), in which military successes were so nearly balanced, and in which discord broke out in the camp and in the town with so much fury, was the establishment of the comitia by tribes, an innovation which gave to the plebeians the honour of the victory, but little real advantage. In fact, the exclusion of the patricians deprived the comitia of all their pomp, without augmenting the power of the people or diminishing that of the Senate." (Titus Livius, II. 60.) ( 2 ) Assembly of the people both of the town and country ; the suffrages were given in it, not by centuries, but by tribes: "The day of the third market, from an early hour in the morning, the public place was occupied by so great a crowd of country people as had never been seen before. The tribunes assem- bled the people by tribes, and, dividing the Forum by ropes stretched across, formed as many distinct spaces as there were tribes. Then, for the first time, the Roman people gave its suffrages by tribes, in spite of the opposition of the patricians, who tried to prevent it, and demanded that they should assemble by centuries, according to the ancient custom." (Year of Rome 263.) (Dio- nysius of Halicarnassus, VII. 59.) "From that period (the year 283, consu- late of Appius) to our days, the comitia by tribes have elected the tribunes and ediles, without auspices or observation of other auguries. Thus ended the troubles which agitated Rome." (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IX. 49.) "The Roman people, more irritated than ever, demanded that for each tribe a third urn should be added for the town of Rome, in order to put the suffrages in it." (Year of Rome 308.) (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, XI. 52.) ( 3 ) " Duas civitates ex una factas : suos cuique parti magistrates, suas leges esse." (Titus Livius, II. 44.) " In fact, we are, as you see yourselves, divided into two towns, one of which is governed by poverty and necessity, and the other by abundance of all things and by pride and insolence." (Year of 36 HISTORY OF JULIUS C2ESAR. At first the patricians would not form part of the as- sembly by tribes, but they soon saw the advantage of it, and, towards 305, entered it with their clients. (') III. This political organisation, the reflex of a soci- Transformationof et 7 composed of so many different ele- the Aristocracy. mentg) CQul( J h ar( Hy h ave constituted E durable order of things, if the ascendency of a privi- leged class had not controlled the causes of dissen- sions. This ascendency itself would soon have di- minished if concessions, forced or voluntary, had not gradually lowered the barriers between the two or- ders. In fact, the arbitrary conduct of the consuls, who were, perhaps, originally nominated by the Senate alone, ( 2 ) excited sharp recriminations : " the consular authority," cried the plebeians, " was, in reality, almost as heavy as that of the kings. Instead of one master they had two, invested with absolute and unlimited power, without rule or bridle, who turned against the people all the threats of the laws, and all their punishments." ( 3 ) Although after the year 283 the patricians and plebeians were subjected to the same judges, ( 4 ) the want of fixed laws left the goods and Rome 260.) (Speech of Titus Larcius to the envoys of the Volsci, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VI. 36.) (') The clients began to vote in the comitia by tribes after the law Valeria Horatia ; we see, by the account of Titus Livius (V. 30, 32), that in the time of Camillus the clients and the patricians had already entered the comitia by tribes. (*) Appian, Civil Wars, 1. 1. ( 3 ) Titus Livius, III. 9. (*) Lectorius, the most aged of the tribunes of the people, spoke of laws which had not been lonp made. "By the first, which concerned the transla- tion of judgments, the Senate granted to the people the power of judging any ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONSULAR REPUBLIC. 37 lives of the citizens delivered to the will either of the consuls or of the tribunes. It became, therefore, in- dispensable to establish the legislation on a solid ba- sis, and in 303 ten magistrates called decemvirs were chosen, invested with the double power, consular and tribunitian, which gave them the right of convoking equally the assemblies by centuries and by tribes. They were charged with the compilation of a code of laws afterwards known as the Laws of the Twelve Ta- bles, which, engraved on brass, became the foundation of the Kornan public law. Yet they persisted in making illegal the union contracted between persons of the two orders, and left the debtor at the mercy of the creditor, contrary to the decision of Servius Tul- lius. The decemvirs abused their power, and, on their fall, the claims of the plebeians increased ; the tribune- ship, abolished during three years, was re-established; it was decided that an appeal to the people from the decision of any magistrate should be permitted, and that the laws made in the assemblies by tribes, as well as in the assemblies by centuries, should be ob- ligatory on all. ( J ) There were thus, then, three sorts one of the patricians." (Year of Rome 283.) (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IX. 46.) (') "The laws voted by the people in the comitia by tribes were to be obli- gatory on all Romans, and have the same force as those which were made in the comitia by centuries. The pain of death and confiscation was even pro- nounced against any one who should be convicted of having in anything abro- gated or violated this regulation. This new ordinance cut short the old quar- rels between the plebeians and the patricians, who refused to obey the laws made by the people, under the pretext that what was decided in the assemblies by tribes was not obligatory on all the town, but only on the plebeians ; and that, on the contrary, what was decided in the comitia by centuries became law 38 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. of comitia ; the comitia by curise, which, conferring the imperium on the magistrates elected by the cen- turies, sanctioned in some sort the election of the con- suls ; ( a ) the comitia by centuries, over which the con- suls presided ; and the comitia by tribes, over which the tribunes presided ; the first named the consuls, the second the plebeian magistrates, and both, com- posed of nearly the same citizens, had equally the power of approving or rejecting the laws ; but in the former, the richest men and the nobility had all the influence, because they formed the majority of the centuries and voted first ; while in the latter, on the contrary, the voters were confounded with that of the tribe to which they belonged. " If," says an ancient author, " the suffrages are taken by gentes (ex generi- bus hominum), the comitia are by curice / if accord- ing to age and census, they are by qenturies / finally, if the vote be given according to territorial circum- scription (regionilms), they are by tribes" ( 2 ) In spite of these concessions, antagonism in matters of law reigned always between the powers, the assem- blies, and the different classes of society. The plebeians laid claim to all the oifices of state, as well for themselves as for the other citizens." (Year of Rome 305.) (Dio- nysius of Halicarnassus, XI. 45.) "One point always contested between the two orders was to know if the patricians were subjected to the plebiscite The first care of the consuls was to propose to the comitia assembled by centuries a law to the effect that the decrees of the people assembled by tribes should be laws of the State." (Year of Rome 305.) (Titus Livius, III. 55.) "The pa- tricians pretended that they alone had the power of giving laws." (Titus Liv- ius, III. 31.) (') "The comitia by curise for everything which concerns military affairs; the comitia by centuries for the election of your consuls and of your military tribunes, &c." (Titus Livius, V. 52.) ( a ) Aulus Gellius, XV. 27. Festus, under the words Sritum ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONSULAR REPUBLIC. 39 and especially to the consulship, refusing to enrol themselves until their demands had been satisfied; and they went so far in their claims that they insist- ed upon the plebeian origin of the kings. " Shall we, then," cried the tribune Canuleius, addressing himself to the people, "have consuls who resemble the decem- virs, the vilest of mortals, all patricians, rather than the best of our kings, all new men !" that is, men with- out ancestors. (*) The Senate resisted, because it had no intention of conferring upon plebeians the right which formed an attribute of the consuls, for the convocation of the comitia, of taking the great auspices, a privilege alto- gether of a religious character, the exclusive apanage of the nobility. ( 2 ) 0) Titus Livius, IV. 3. ( 2 ) "The indignation of the people was extreme, on account of the refusal to take the auspices, as if it had been an object for the reprobation of the im- mortal gods." "The tribune demanded for what reason a plebeian could not be consul, and was told in reply that the plebeians had not the auspices, and that the decemvirs had interdicted marriage between the two orders only to hinder the auspices from being troubled by men of equivocal birth." (Titus Livius, IV. G.) "Now in what hands are the auspices according to the custom of our ancestors? In the hands of the patricians, I think ; for the auspices are never taken for the nomination of a plebeian magistrate." " Is it not then the same thing as to annihilate the auspices in this city, to take them, in electing plebe- ian consuls, from the patricians, who alone can observe them?" (Year of Rome 386.) (Titus Livius, VI. 41.) To the consul, the praetor, and the censor was reserved the right of taking the great auspices ; to the less elevated magistracies that of taking the lesser ones. The great auspices appear, in fact, to have been those of which the ex- ercise was of most importance to the rights of the aristocracy. The ancients have not left us a precise definition of the two classes of auspices ; but it ap- pears to result from what Cicero says of them (De, Legibus, II. 12), that by the great auspices were understood those for which the intervention of the augurs was indispensable ; the little auspices, on the contrary, were those which were taken without them. (See Aulus Gellius, XIII. 15.) As to the auspices taken in the comitia where the consular tribunes were 40 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. In order to obviate this difficulty, the Senate, after suppressing the legal obstacles in the way of mar- riages between the two orders, agreed in 309 to the creation of six military tribunes invested with the consular power; but, which was an essential point, it was the interrex who convoked the comitia and took the auspices. (*) During seventy-seven years the military tribunes were elected alternately with the consuls, and the consulship was only re-establish- ed permanently in 387, when it was opened to the ple- beians. This was the result of one of the laws of Li- cinius Stolo. This tribune succeeded in obtaining the adoption of several measures which appeared to open a new era which would put an end to disputes. Still the patricians held with such tenacity to the privilege of alone taking the auspices, that in 398, in the absence of the patrician consul, an interrex was appointed charged with presiding over the comitia, in order not to leave this care to the dictator, and the other consul, who were both plebeians. ( 2 ) But in permitting the popular class to arrive at the consulship, care had been taken to withdraw from that dignity a. great part of its attributes, in order to confer them upon patrician magistrates. Thus they elected, passages of Titus Livius (V. 14, 52; VI. 11) prove that they were the same as for the election of the consuls, and consequently that they were the great auspices; for we know from Cicero (De Divinatione, I. 17; II. 35 com- pare Titus Livius, IV. 7) that it was the duty of the magistrate who held the comitia to bring there an augur, of whom he demanded what the presages an- nounced. The privileges of the nobility were maintained by causing the co- mitia for the election of the consular tribunes to be held by an interrex chosen by the aristocracy. O Titus Livius, VI. 5. ( a ) Titus Livius, VII. 17. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONSULAR REPUBLIC. 41 had successively taken away from the consuls, by the creation of two questors, in 307, the administration of the military chest ; (>) by the creation of the cen- sors, in 311, the right of drawing up the list of the census, the assessment of the revenue of the State, and of watching over public morals ; by the creation of the praetors, in 387, the sovereign jurisdiction in civil affairs, under the pretext that the nobility alone possessed the knowledge of the law of the Quirites ;' and lastly, by the creation of the curule ediles, the presidency of the games, the superintendence of build- ings, the police and the provisioning of the town, the maintenance of the public roads, and the inspection of the markets. The intention of the aristocracy had been to limit the compulsory concessions; but after the adoption of the Licinian laws, it was no longer possible to pre- vent the principle of the admission of plebeians to all the magistracies. In 386 they had arrived at the important charge of master of the knights (magister equituni), who was in a manner the lieutenant of the dictator (nwgister populi) ; ( 2 ) in 387 access to the religious functions had been laid open to them ; ( 3 ) in 345 they obtained the questorship ; in 398, the (') In 333, the number was increased to four. Two, overseers for the guard of the treasury and the disposition of the public money, were appointed by the consuls ; the two others, charged with the administration of the military chest, were appointed by the tribes. (') " The master of the knights was so called because he exercised the supreme power over the knights and the accensi, as the dictator exercised it over the whole Roman people; whence the name of master of the people, which was also given to him." (Varro, De Lingua Latino, V. 82, edit. Miiller.) ( 3 ) "The duumvirs charged with the sacred rites were replaced by the de- cemvirs, half plebeians, half patricians." (Titus Livius, VI. 37.) 42 HISTORY OF JULIUS OESAR. dictatorship itself; in 403, the censorship; and lastly, in 417, the prsetorship. In 391, the people arrogated the right of appoint- ing a part of the legionary tribunes, previously chosen by the consuls. ( x ) In 415, the law of Q.Publilius Philo took from the Senate the power of refusing the auctoritas to the laws voted by the comitia, and obliged it to declare "in advance if the proposed law were in conformity \vith public and religious law. Further, the obliga- tion imposed by this law of having always one cen- sor taken from among the plebeians, opened the doors of the Senate to the richest of them, since it was the business of the censor to fix the rank of the citizens, and pronounce on the admission or exclusion of the senators. The Publilian law thus tended to raise the aristocracy of the two orders to the same rank, and to create the nobility (nobilitas), composed of all the families rendered illustrious by the offices they had filled. IV. At the beginning of the fifth century of Rome, of Disso- tne bringing nearer together of the two orders had given a greater consistence to society ; but, just as we have seen under the kingly rule, the principles begin to show themselves which were one day to make the greatness of Rome, so now we see the first appearance of dangers which will be renewed unceasingly. Electoral corruption, the law of perduellio, slavery, the increase of the poor class, the agrarian laws, and the question of debts, will ( l ) Titus LiTius, VII. 5. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONSULAR REPUBLIC. 4.3 come, under different circumstances, to threaten the existence of the Republic. Let us summarily state that these questions, so grave in the sequel, were raised at an early date. ELECTORAL CORRUPTION. Fraud found its way into the elections as soon as the number of electors in- creased and rendered it necessary to collect more suf- frages to obtain public charges ; as early as 396, in- deed, a law on solicitation, proposed by the tribune of the people, C. Poetelius, bears witness to the exist- ence of electoral corruption. LAW OF HIGH-TREASON. As early as 305 and 369, the application of the law of perduellio, or design against the Republic, furnished to arbitrary power an arm of which, at a later period, under the emperors, so deplorable a use was made under the name of the law of high- treason. (*) SLAVERY. Slavery presented serious dangers for society, for, on the one hand, it tended, by the lower price of manual labour, to substitute itself for the la- bour of free men ; while, on the other, discontented with their lot, the slaves were always ready to shake off the yoke and become the auxiliaries of all w T ho were ambitious. In 253, 294, and 336, partial insur- rections announced the condition already to be feared of a class disinherited of all the advantages, though intimately bound up with all the wants, of ordinary life. ( 2 ) The number of slaves increased rapidly. (') "Appius convokes an assembly, accuses Valerius and Horatius of the crime of perduellio, calculating entirely on the tribunitian power with which he was invested." (Year of Rome 305.) (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, XI. 39.) ( 2 ) "In the interim, there was at Rome a conspiracy of several slaves, who formed together the design of seizing the forts and setting fire to the different 44 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. They replaced the free men torn by the continual wars from the cultivation of the land. At a later pe- riod, when these latter returned to their homes, the Senate was obliged to support them by sending as far as Sicily to seek wheat to deliver to them either gra- tis or at a reduced price. ( l ) AGRARIAN LAWS. As to the Agrarian laws and the question of debts, they soon became an incessant cause of agitation. The kings, with the conquered lands, had formed a domain of the State (ager pullicus), one of its princi- pal resources, ( 2 ) and generously distributed part of it to the poor citizens. ( 3 ) Generally they took from quarters of the town." (Year of Rome 253.) (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, V. 51.) "From the summit of the Capitol, Herdonius called the slaves to liberty. He had taken up the cause of misfortune ; he had just restored to their country those whom injustice had banished, and delivered the slaves from a heavy yoke ; it is to the Roman people that he wishes to give the honour of this enterprise." (Year of Rome 294.) (Titus Livius, III. 15.) "The slaves who had entered into the conspiracy were, at different points, to set fire to the town, and, while the people were occupied in carrying assistance to the houses which were in flames, to seize by force of arms the citadel and the Capitol. Jupiter baffled these criminal designs. On the denunciation of two slaves, the guilty were arrested and punished. " (Year of Rome 336.) (Titus Livius, IV. 45.) (') "Finally, under the consulship of M. Minucius and A. Sempronius, wheat arrived in abundance from Sicily, and the Senate deliberated on the price at which it must be delivered to the citizens." (Year of Rome 263.) (Titus Liv- ius, II. 34.) "As the want of cultivators gave rise to the fear of a famine, people were sent to search for wheat in Etruria, in the Pomptinum, at Cumae, and even as far as Sicily." (Year of Rome 321.) (Titus Livius, IV. 25.) ( 3 ) "When Romulus had distributed all the people in tribes and curias, he also divided the lands into thirty equal portions, of which he gave one to each curia, reserving, nevertheless, what was necessary for the temples and the'sac- rifices, and a certain portion for the domain of the Republic." (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 7.) ( 3 ) " Numa distributed to the poorest of the plebeians the lands which Rom- ulus had conquered and a small portion of the lands of the public domain." (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 62.) "Similar measures are attributed to ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONSULAR REPUBLIC. 45 * the conquered peoples two-thirds of their land. ( J ) Of these two-thirds, " the cultivated part," says Ap- pian, "was always adjudged to the new colonists, either as a gratuitous grant, or by sale, or by lease paying rent. As to the uncultivated part, which, as a consequence of war, was almost always the most considerable, it was not the custom to distribute it, but the enjoyment of it was left to any one willing to clear and cultivate it, with a reservation to. the State of the tenth part of the harvest and a fifth part of the fruits. A similar tax was levied upon those who bred cattle, large or small (in order to prevent the pasture land from increasing in extent to the detri- ment of the arable land). This was done in view of the increase of the Italic population, which was judged at Rome the most laborious, and to have allies of their own race. But the measure produced a result contrary to that which was expected from it. The rich appropriated to themselves the greatest part of the undistributed lands, and reckoning that the long duration of their occupation would permit nobody to expel them, they bought when they found a seller, or Tullius Hostilius and Ancus Martius." (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, III. 1, 48.) "As soon as he was mounted on the throne, Servius Tullius distributed the lands of the public domain to the tketes (mercenaries) of the Romans." (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 13.) ( l ) Romulus, according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, sent two colonies to Caenina and Antemnne, having taken from those two towns the third of their lands. (II. 35.) In the year 252, the Sabines lost ten thousand acres (jugera) of arable land. (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, V. 49.) A treaty concluded with the Hernici, in 268, deprived them of two-thirds of their territory. (Titus Liv- ius, II. 41.) "In 413, the Privernates lost two-thirds of their territory; in U6, the Tiburtines and Prenestines lost a part of their territory." (Titus Liv- us, VIII. 1, 14.) "In 563, P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica took from the Boians nearly half their territory." (Titus Livius, XXXVI. 39.) 46 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. took by force from their neighbouring lesser proprie- tors their modest heritages, and thus formed vast do- mains, instead of the mere fields which they had themselves cultivated before." (') The kings had always sought to put a curb on these usurpations, ( 2 ) and perhaps it was a similar at- tempt which cost Servius Tullius his life. But after the fall of the kingly power, the patricians, having be- come more powerful, determined to preserve the lands which they had unjustly seized. ( 3 ) And it must be acknowledged, as they supported the greatest share of the burthen of war and taxation, they had a better claim than the others to the con- quered lands ; they thought, moreover, that the colo- nies were sufficient to support an agricultural popu- lation, and they acted rather as State farmers than as proprietors of the soil. According to the public law, indeed, the ager pullicus was inalienable, and we read in an ancient author : " Lawyers deny that the soil which has once begun to belong to the Roman peo- (') Appian, Civil Wars, I. vii. This citation, though belonging to a poste- rior date, applies nevertheless to the epoch of which we are speaking. ( 3 ) "Servius published an edict to oblige all who had appropriated, under the title of usufructuaries or proprietors, the lands of the public domain, to re- store them within a certain time, and, by the same edict, the citizens who pos- sessed no heritage were ordered to bring him their names." (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 10.) ( 3 ) " We need not be astonished if the poor prefer the lands of the domain to be distributed (to all the citizens) than to suffer that a small number of the most shameless should remain sole possessors. But if they see that they are taken from those who gather their revenues, and that the public is restored to the possession of its domain, they will cease to be jealous of us, and the desire to see them distributed to each citizen would diminish, when it shall be dem- onstrated to them that these lands will be of greater xitility when possessed in common by the Republic." (Year of Rome 268.) (Speech of Appius, Dio- nysius of Halicarnnssus, VIII. 73.) ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONSULAR REPUBLIC. 47 pie, can ever, by usage or possession, become the prop- erty of anybody else in the world." (*) In spite of this principle, it would have been wis- dom to give, to the poor citizens who had fought, a part of the spoils of the vanquished ; for the demands were incessant, and after 268, renewed almost yearly by the tribunes or by the consuls themselves. In 275, a patrician, Fabius Cseso, taking the initiative in a partition of lands recently conquered, exclaimed : " Is it not just that the territories taken from the enemy should become the property of those who have paid for it with their sweat and with their blood ?" ( 2 ) The Senate was as inflexible for this proposition as for those which were brought forward by Q. Considi- us and T. Genucius in 278, by Cn. Genucius in 280, and by the tribunes of the people, with the support of the consuls Valerius and ^Emilius, in 284. ( 3 ) Yet, after fifty years of struggles since the expul- sion of the Tarquins, the tribune Icilius, in 298, ob- tained the partition of the lands of Mount Aventine, by indemnifying those who had usurped a certain (') Agannius Urbicus, De Controversiis agrorum, in the Gromatici veteres, ed. Lachmann, vol. I., p. 82. ( s ) Titus Livius, II. 48. ( 3 ) " Lucius ^Emilius said that it was just that the common goods should be shared among all the citizens, rather than leave the enjoyment of them to a ;mall number of individuals ; that in regard to those who had seized upon the )ublic lands, they ought to be sufficiently satisfied that they had been left to ,njoy them during so long a time without being disturbed in their possession, md that if afterwards they were deprived of them, it ill became them to be ob- tinate in retaining them. He added that, besides the public law acknowledged >y general opinion, and according to which the public goods are common to all he citizens, just as the goods of individuals belong to those who have acquired hem legitimately, the Senate was obliged, by a special reason, to distribute the inds to the people, since it had passed an ordinance for that purpose already 3venteen years ago." (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IX. 51.) 48 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. portion of them. (') The application of the law Icilia to other parts of the ager puUicus ( 2 ) was vainly so- licited in 298 and the following years ; but in 330, a new tax was imposed upon the possessors of the lands for the pay of the troops. The perseverance of the tribunes was unwearied, and, during the thirty- six years following, six different propositions were unsuccessful, even that relating to the territory of the Bolani, newly taken from the enemy. ( 3 ) In 361 only, a senatus consultus granted to each father of a family and to each free man seven acres of the tenl- tory which had just been conquered from the Veii. ( 4 ) In 371, after a resistance of five years, the Senate, in order to secure the concurrence of the people in the war against the Volsci, agreed to the partition of the territory of the Pomptinum (the Pontine Marshes), taken from that people by Camillus, and already given (') Titus Livius, III. 31. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, X. 33 et seq. (*) "The plebeians complain loudly that their conquests have been taken from them ; that it is disgraceful that, having conquered so many lands from the enemy, not the least portion of it remains to them ; that the ager publicus is possessed by rich and influential men who take the revenue unjustly, with- out other title than their power and unexampled acts of violence. They de- mand finally that, sharing with the patricians all the dangers, they may also have their share in the advantages and profit derived from them." (Year of Rome 298.) (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, X. 36.) ( s ) "The moment would have been well chosen, after having taken venge- ance on the seditious, to propose, in order to soothe people's minds, the parti- tion of the territory of the Bolani ; they would thus have weakened the desire for an agrarian law which would expel the patricians from the public estates they had unjustly usurped. For it was an indignity which cut the people to the heart, this rage of the nobility to retain the public lands they occupied by force, and, above all, their refusal to distribute to the people even the vacant lands recently taken from the enemy, which, indeed, would soon become, like the rest, the prey of some of the nobles." (Year of Rome 341.) (Titus Livi- us, IV. 51.) ( 4 ) Titus Livius, V. 30. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONSULAR REPUBLIC. 49 up to the encroachments of the aristocracy. (') But these partial concessions were not enough to satisfy the plebeians or to repair past injustices ; in the Li- cinian law the claims of the people, which had been resisted during a hundred and thirty-six years, tri- umphed ; ( 2 ) it did not entirely deprive the nobles of the enjoyment of the lands unjustly usurped, but it limited the possession of them to -five hundred jugera. When this repartition was made, the land which re- mained was to be distributed among the poor. The proprietors were obliged to maintain on their lands a certain number of free men, in order to augment the class from which the legions were recruited; lastly, the number of cattle on each domain was fixed, in or- der to restrain the culture of the meadows, in general the most lucrative, and augment that of the arable lands, which relieved Italy from the necessity of hav- ing recourse to foreign corn. This law of Licinius Stolo secured happy results ; it restrained the encroachments of the rich and great, but only proceeded with moderation in its retrospect- ive effects ; it put a stop to the alarming extension of the private domains at the expense of the public do- main, to the absorption of the good of the many by the few, to the depopulation of Italy, and consequent- ly to the diminution of the strength of the armies. ( 3 ) The numerous condemnations for trespasses against (') Titus Living, VI. 21. It appears that the Pontine Marshes were then very fertile, since Pliny relates, after Licinius Mucianus, that they included upwards of twenty-four flourishing towns. (Natural History, III. v. 56, edit. Sillig.) ( 2 ) Titus Livius, VI. 35-42. Appian, Civil Wars, I. 8. ( 3 ) See the remarkable work of M. A. Mace, Sur les Lois Agraires, Paris, 1846. 3 D 50 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. the law Licinia prove that it -was carried into execu- tion, and for the space of two hundred years it con- tributed, with the establishment of new colonies, (') to maintain this class of agriculturists the principal sinews of the State. We see indeed that, from this moment, the Senate itself took the initiative of new distributions of land to the people. ( 2 ) DEBTS. The question of debts and the diminution of the rate of interest had long been the subject of strong prejudices and of passionate debates. (*) ROMAN COLONIES. Second period: 244-416 Lavici (Labicum) (336). Latium. ( Via Lavicana.) La Colonna. Fvscula, I. pp. 244-254. ( 3 ) "There the people (populus) named their magistrates ; the duumviri per- formed the functions of consuls or prators, whose title they sometimes took (Corpus Inscriptionum Latin., passim) ; the quinquennales corresponded to the censors. Finally, there were questors and ediles. The Senate, as at Rome, was composed of members, elected for life, to the number of a hundred ; the number was filled up every five years (lectio senatus). (Tabula Heracleensis, cap. x. et seq.) CONQUEST OF ITALY. 73 The Latin colonies differed from the others in hav- ing been founded by the confederacy of the Latins on different points of Latium. Emanating from a league of independent cities, they were not, like the Roman colonies, tied by close bonds to the metropolis. ( J ) But the confederacy once dissolved, these colonies were placed in the rank of allied towns (socii Z/atini). The act (formula) which instituted them was a sort of treaty guaranteeing their franchise. ( 2 ) Peopled at first by Latins, it was not long before these colonies received Roman citizens who were in- duced by their poverty to exchange their title and rights for the advantages assured to the colonists. These did not figure on the lists of the censors. The formula fixed simply the tribute to pay and the number of soldiers to furnish. What the colony lost in privileges it gained in independence. ( 3 ) The isolation of the Latin colonies, placed in the middle of the enemy's territory, obliged them to re- main faithful to Rome, and to keep watch on the neighbouring peoples. Their military importance was at least equal to that of the Roman colonies; they merited as well as these latter the name ofpro- pugnacula imperil and of specula, ( 4 ) that is, bulwarks and watch-towers of the conquest. In a political (') A certain number of colonies figure in the list given by Dionysius of Halicarnassus of the members of the confederacy (V. 61). ( 2 ) Pliny, Natural History, III. iv. 7. ( 3 ) Because it named its magistrates, struck money (Mommsen, Miinzwesen, p. 317), privileges refused to the Roman colonies, and preserved its own pecul- iar laws according to the principle: "Nulla populi Romani lege ndstricti, nisi in quam populus eorum fund us factus est." (Aulus Gellius, XVI. xiii. 6. Compare Cicero, Oration for Balbtis, v'rii. 21.) (*) Cicero, Oration on the Agrarian Law, ii. 27. 4 74 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. point of view they rendered services of a similar kind. If the Roman colonies announced to the conquered people the majesty of the Roman name, their Latin sisters gave an ever-increasing extension to the nomen Latinum,(f) that is, to the language, manners, and whole civilisation of that race of which Rome was but the first representative. The Latin colonies were ordinarily founded to economise the colonies of Ro- man citizens, which were charged principally with the defence of the coasts and the maintenance of com- mercial relations with foreign people. In making the privileges of the Roman citizen an advantage which every one was happy and proud to acquire, the Senate held out a bait to all ambitions; and this general desire, not to destroy the privilege, but to gain a place among the privileged, is a charac- teristic trait of the manners of antiquity. In the city not less than in the State, the insurgents or discon- tented did not seek, as in our modern societies, to overthrow, but to attain to. So every one, according to his position, aspired to a legitimate object : the ple- beians to enter into the aristocracy, not to destroy it ; the Italic peoples, to have a part in the sovereignty of Rome, not to contest it ; the Roman provinces to be declared allies and friends of Rome, and not to re- cover their independence. The peoples could judge, according to their con- duct, what lot was reserved for them. The paltry interests of city were replaced by an effectual pro- tection, and by new rights often more precious, in the eyes of the vanquished, than independence itself. (') Titos Livius, XXVII. 9. CONQUEST OF ITALY. 75 This explains the facility with which the Roman domination was established. In fact, that only is destroyed entirely which may be replaced advantage- ously. A rapid glance at the wars which effected the con- quest of Italy will show how the Senate made appli- cation of the principles stated above ; how it was skilful in profiting by the divisions of if s adversaries, in collecting its whole strength to overwhelm one of them ; after the victoiy in making it an ally ; in using the arms and resources of that ally to subjugate an- other people; in crushing the confederacies which united the vanquished against it; in attaching them to Rome by new bonds ; in establishing military posts on all the points of strategic importance ; and, lastly, in spreading everywhere the Latin race by distribu- ting to Roman citizens a part of the lands taken from the enemy. But, before entering upon the recital of events, we must cast a glance upon the years which immediately preceded the pacification of Latium. IV. During a hundred and sixty-seven years, Rome submission of La- had been satisfied with struggling against tiuin after the first , i i samnite war. her neighbours to re-conquer a supremacy lost since the fall of her kings. She held herself al- most always on the defensive ; but, with the fifth cen- tury, she took the offensive, and inaugurated the sys- tem of conquests continued to the moment when she herself succumbed. In 411, she had, in concert with the Latins, com- bated the Samnites for the first time, and commenced 76 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. against that redoubtable people a struggle which last- ed seventy-two years, and which brought twenty-four triumphs to the Roman generals. ( x ) Proud of hav- ing contributed to the two great victories of Mount Gaurus and Suessula, the Latins, with an exaggerated belief in their own strength and a pretension to equal- ity with Rome, went so far as to require that one of the two consuls, and half of the senators, should be chosen from their nation. War was immediately de- clared. The Senate was willing enough to have al- lies and subjects, but it could not suffer equals ; it ac- cepted without scruple the services of those who had just been enemies, and the Romans, united with the Sainnites, the Hernici, and the Sabellian peoples, were seen in the fields of the Veseris and Trifanurn, fight- ing against the Latins and Volsci. Latiuni once re- duced, it remained to determine the lot of the van- quished. Livy reports a speech of Camillus which explains clearly, the policy recommended by that great citizen. "Will you," he exclaims, addressing the members of the assembly, " use the utmost rig- our of the rights of victory ? You are masters to de- stroy all Latiuni, and to make a vast desert of it, after having often drawn from it powerful succours. Will you, on the contrary, after the example of your fa- thers, augment the resources of Rome ? Admit the vanquished among the number of your citizens ; it is a fruitful means of increasing at the same time your power and your glory." ( 2 ) This last counsel pre- vailed. The first step was to break the bonds which made (') Florus, I. 16. ( s ) Titus Livius, VIII. 13, 14. CONQUEST OF ITALY. 77 of the Latin people a sort of confederacy. All polit- ical communalty, all war on their own account, all rights of commercium and conmibium, between the different cities, were taken from them. (') The towns nearest Rome received the rights of city and suffrage. ( 2 ) Others received the title of allies and the privilege of preserving their own institutions, but they lost a part of their territory. ( 3 ) As to the Latin colonies founded before in the old country of the Volsci, they formed the nucleus of the Latin allies (socii nominis Latini}. Velitrse, alone, having al- ready revolted several times, was treated with great rigour ; Antium was compelled to surrender its ships, and become a maritime colony. These severe, but equitable measures, had pacified Latium applied to the rest of Italy, and even to for- eign countries, they will facilitate everywhere the progress of Roman domination. The momentary alliance with the Samnites had permitted Rome to reduce the Latins; nevertheless the Senate, without hesitation, turned against the for- mer again as soon as the moment appeared conven- ient. It concluded, in 422, a treaty with the Gauls and Alexander Molossus, who, having landed near Psestum, attacked the Lucanians and the Samnites. This King of Epirus, the uncle of Alexander the Great, had been called into Italy by the Tarentines ; but his premature death disappointed the hopes to (') Titus Living, VIII. 14. These towns had the right of city without suf- frage ; of this number were Capua (in consideration of its knights, who had re- fused to take part in the revolt), Cumse, Fundi, and Formise. ( 2 ) Velleius Paterculus, 1. 15. ( 3 ) Titus Livins, VIII. 14. "78 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. which his co-operation had given rise, and the Sam- nites recommenced their incursions on the lands of their neighbours. The intervention of Rome put a stop to the war. All the forces of the Republic were employed in reducing the revolt of the Volscian towns of Fundi and Privernum. ( J ) In 425, Anxur (Terradna) was declared a Roman colony, and, in 426, Fregellse (Cepranof), a Latin colony. The establishment of these fortresses, and of those of Gales and Antium, secured the communications with Campania ; the Liris and the Vulturnus became in that direction the principal lines of defence of the Romans. The cities situated on the shores of that magnificent gulf called Crater by the ancients, and in our days the Gulf of Naples, perceived then the dan- gers which threatened them. They turned their eyes towards the population of the interior, who were no less alarmed for their independence. V. The fertile countries which bordered the west- ern shore of the peninsula were destined Second Samnite War. . r> i T to excite the covetousness ot the Ko- mans and the Samnites, and become the prey of the conqueror. " Campania, indeed," says Floras, ( 2 ) " is the finest country of Italy, and even of the whole world. There is nothing milder than its climate. Spring flourishes there twice every year. There can be nothing more fertile than its soil. It is called the garden of Ceres and Bacchus. There is not a more hospitable sea than that which bathes its shores." (') Titus Livius, VIII. 14, et teq. Valerius Maximus, VI. ii. 1. (') Florus, 1.16. CONQUEST OF ITALY. 79 In 427, the two peoples disputed the possession of it, as they had done in 411. The inhabitants of False- opolis having attacked the Roman colonists of the ager Campanus, the consuls marched against that place, which soon received succour from the Samnites and the inhabitants of Nola, while Rome formed an alliance with the Apulians and the Lucanians. The siege dragged on, and the necessity of continuing the campaign beyond the ordinary limit led to the pro- longation of the command of Publilius Philo with the title of proconsul, which appeared for the first time in the military annals. The Samnites were soon driven from Campania; the Palseopolitans submitted; their town was demolished ; but they formed close to it a new establishment, at Naples (Neapolis), where a new treaty guaranteed them an almost absolute independ- ence, on the condition of furnishing a certain number of vessels to Rome. After that, nearly all the Greek towns, reduced one after another, obtained the same favourable conditions, and formed the class of the so- cii navales. (*) Yet the war was protracted in the mountains of the Apennine. Tarentum united with the Samnites, the only people who were still to be feared, (*) and the Lucanians abandoned the alliance of the Romans ; but, in 429, the two most celebrated captains of the time, Q. Fabius Rullianus and Papirius Cursor, pene- trated into the country of Sainnium, and compelled the enemy to pay an indemnity for the war and ac- cept a year's truce. O Titus Livius, VIII. 26 ; XXI. 49 ; XXII. 11. ( 2 ) "Earn solam gentem rcstare." (Titus Livius, VIII. 27.) 80 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAK. At this epoch, an unforeseen event, which changed the destinies of the world, came to demonstrate the difference between the rapid creation of a man of gen- ius and the patient work of an intelligent aristocracy. Alexander the Great, after having shone like a meteor, and brought into subjection the most powerful king- doms of Asia, died at Babylon. His fruitful and deci- sive influence, which carried the civilization of Greece into the East, survived him, but at his death, the em- pire he founded became in a few years dismembered (431); the Roman aristocracy, on the contrary, per- petuating itself from age to age, pursued more slowly, but without interruption, the system which, binding again the peoples about a common centre, was des- tined by little and little to secure her domination over Italy first, and then over the universe. The defection of a part of the Apulians, in 431, en- couraged the Samnites to take arms again ; defeated in the following years, they asked for the restora- tion- of friendly relations, but the haughty refusal of Rome led, in 433, to the famous defeat of the Furcse Caudinae. The generosity of the Samnite general, Pontus Herennius, who granted their lives to so many thousands of prisoners on condition of restoring to force the r ,old treaties, had no effect upon the Senate. Four legions had passed under the yoke a circum- stance in which the Senate only saw a new affront to revenge. The treaty of Caudium was not ratified, and subterfuges little excusable, although approved at a later period by Cicero, (*) gave to the refusal an appearance of justice. (') Cicero, de Qfficiis, iii. 30. CONQUEST OF ITALY. 81 Meanwhile the Senate exerted itself vigorously to repair this check, and soon Publilius Philo defeated the enemies in Samnium, and, in Apulia, Papirius, in his turn, caused seven thousand Samnites to pass un- der the yoke. The vanquished solicited peace, but in vain ; they only obtained a truce for two years (436), and it had hardly expired, when, penetrating into the country of the Volsci, as far as the neighbourhood of Terracina, and taking a position at Lautulse, they de- feated a Roman army raised hastily and commanded by Q. Fabius (439). Capua deserted, and Nola, Nu- ceria, the Aurunci, and the Volsci of the Liris took part openly with the Samnites. The spirit of rebel- lion spread as far as Praeneste. Rome was in danger. The Senate required its utmost energy to restrain pop- ulations whose fidelity was always doubtful. For- tune seconded its efforts, and the allies, who had proved traitors, received a cruel chastisement, explain- ed by the terror they had inspired. In 440, ( J ) not far from Caudium, a numerous army encountered the Samnites, who lost 30,000 men, and were driven back into the Apennine territory. The Roman legions pro- ceeded to encamp before their capital, Bovianum, and there took up their winter quarters. The -year following (441), Rome, less occupied in fighting, profited by this circumstance to seize upon advantageous positions, establishing in Campania and Apulia colonies which surrounded the territory of Samnium. At the same epoch, Appius Claudius trans- formed into a regular ' causeway the road which has (') Titus Livius, IX. 24, 28. 4* F 82 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. preserved his name. (*) The Komans turned their at- tention to the defence of the coasts and communica- tion by sea ; a colony was sent to the isle of Pontia, ( 2 ) opposite Tarracina, and the armament of a fleet was commenced, which was placed under the command of duumviri iiavales. ( 3 ) The war had lasted fifteen years, and, although Rome had only succeeded in driving back the Samnites into their own territory, she had conquered two provinces, Apulia and Cam- pania. VI. A struggle so desperate had produced its effect Third samnite war. even in Etruria, and the old league was Coalition of Sara- ,, -, . T -. ill* mte*, Etruscans, formed again. Inured to war by their Umbrians, and Her- nici (W3-449). daily combats with the Gauls, and em- boldened by the reports of the defeat of Lautulse, the Etruscans believed that the moment had arrived for recovering their ancient territory to the south of the Ciminian forest ; they were further encouraged by the attitude of the peoples of Central Italy, who were weaiy of the continual passing of legions. From 443 to 449, the armies of the Republic were obliged to face different enemies at the same time. In Etmria, Fabius Rullianus relieved Sutrium, a rampart of Rome on the north ; ( 4 ) he passed through the Ciminian for- est, and by the victories of Lake Vadirno (445) ( 5 ) and Perusia compelled all the Etruscan towns to ask (') Diodoras Siculus, XX. 36. Titus Livius, IX. 2.9. () Diodorus Siculus, XIX. 101. (*) Titus Livius, IX. 31. ( 4 ) Diodorus Siculus, XX. 35. (*) Now Logo di Vadimone or Bagnaccio, situated on the right bank and three miles from the Tiber, between that river and the Lake Ciminius, about the latitude of Narni. CONQUEST OF ITALY. 83 for peace. At the same time, an army laid waste the country of the Samnites ; and a Koman fleet, com- posed of vessels furnished by the maritime allies, took the offensive for the first time. Its attempt near Nu- ceria Alfaterna (Nocera, a town of Campania) was unfortunate. War next breaks out again in Apulia, Samnium, and Etruria, where the aged Papirius Cursor, named dictator anew, gains a brilliant victory at Langula (445). The year following Fabius penetrates again into Samnium, and the other consul, Decius, maintains Etruria. Suddenly the Unibrians conceive the proj- ect of seizing Rome by surprise. The consuls are re- called for the defence of the town. Fabius meets the Etruscans at Mevania (on the confines of Etruria and Umbria), and, the year following, at Allifse (447). Among the prisoners were some JEqui and Hernici. Their towns, feeling themselves thus compromised, declared open war against the Romans (448). The Samnites recovered courage; but the prompt reduc- tion of the Hernici allowed the Senate to concentrate its forces. Two armies, penetrating into Samnium by way of Apulia and Campania, re-established the old frontiers. Bovianum was taken for the third time, and during six months the country was delivered up to devastation. In vain Tarentum tried to raise new quarrels for the Republic, and to force the Lucanians to embrace the cause of the Samnites. The successes )f the Roman amis led to the conclusion of treaties rf peace with all the peoples of Southern Italy, con- strained thenceforward to acknowledge the majesty )f the Roman people. The Jqui remained alone ex- 84 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. posed to the wrath of Rome ; the Senate did not for- get that at Allifae they had fought in the ranks of the enemy, and, once freed from its more serious embar- rassments, it inflicted on this people a terrible chas- tisement : forty-one places were taken and burnt in fifty days. This period of six years thus terminated with the submission of the Hernici and JSqui. Five years less agitated left Rome time to regulate the position of its new subjects, and to establish colo- nies and ways of communication. The Hernici were treated in the same manner as the Latins, in 416, and deprived of commerciwn and connubium. Prefects and the law of the Caerites were imposed on Anagnia, Frusino, and other towns guilty of desertion. The cities which had remained faithful preserved their independence and the title of allies (448) ; (*) the ^Equi lost a part of their territory and received the right of city without suffrage (450). The Samnites, sufficiently humiliated, obtained at last the renewal of their ancient conventions (450). ( 2 ) Fcedera non cequa were concluded with the Marsi, the Peligni,the Marrucini,the Frentani (450), the Vestini (452), and the Picentini (455). ( 3 ) Rome treated with Tarentum on a footing of equality, and engaged not to let her fleet pass the Lacinian Promontory to the south of the Gulf of Tarentum. ( 4 ) Thus, on the one hand, the territories shared among the Roman citizens ; on the other, the number of the (') Titus Livius, IX. 43. Cicero, Oration for Balbus, 13. Festns, under the word PrirfeciwcE, p. 233. ( 3 ) Titus Livius, IX. 45. Diodorus Siculns, XX. 101. O Titus Livius, IX. 45 ; X. 3, 10. (*) Appian, Samnite Wars, vii., p. 56, edit. Schweighasuser. CONQUEST OF ITALY. 85 municipia were considerably augmented. Further, the Republic had acquired new allies ; she possessed at length the passages of the Apennines and com- manded both seas. ( l ) A girdle of Latin fortresses protected Rome and broke the communications be- tween the north and south of Italy ; among the Marsi and the ^Equi, there were Alba and Carseoli ; Sora, towards the sources of the Liris ; and Narnia, in Urn- bria. Military roads connected the colonies with the metropolis. VII. Peace could not last long: between Rome Fourth samnite War. and the Samnites it was a duel to death. econd coalition of the -.- 4 ~ n il lj_j. "IJ 1 1 _? ammies, Etruscans, In 4o6, these latter had already suin- nibrians, and Gauld . -,.-,. U , . -,.-,. (450^64). ciently recovered from their disasters to attempt once more the fortune of arms. ( 2 ) Rome sends to the succour of the Lucanians, suddenly at- tacked, two consular armies. Vanquished at Tifer- num by Fabius, at Maleventum by Decius, the Sam- nites witness the devastation of their whole country. Still they do not lose courage; their chief, Gellius Egnatius, conceives a plan which places Rome in great danger. He divides the Samnite army into three bodies : the first remains to defend the country ; the second- takes the offensive in Campania; the third, which he commands in person, throws itself into Etruria, and, increased by the junction of the Etrus- cans, the Gauls, and the Umbrians, soon forms a nu- merous army. ( 3 ) The storm roared on all sides, and, 0) Diodorus Siculus, XIX. 10. C 2 ) Titus Livius, X. 11, et seq. ( 3 ) Titus Livius, X. 22, et seq. Polybius, II. 19. Floras, I. 17. 86 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. while the Roman generals were occupied some in Sarnnium and others in Campania, despatches arrived from Appius, placed at the head of the army of Etru- ria, announcing a terrible coalition formed in silence by the peoples of the north, who were concentrating all their forces in Umbria for the purpose of march- ing upon Rome. The terror was extreme, but the energy of the Ro- mans was equal to the danger. All able men, even to the freedmen, were enrolled, and ninety thousand soldiers were raised. Under these grave circum- stances (458), Fabius and Decius were, once again, raised to the supreme magistracy, and gained, under the walls of Sentinum, a brilliant victory, long dis- puted. During the battle, Decius devoted himself, as his father had done before. The coalition once dissolved, Fabius defeated another army which had issued from Perusia, and then came to receive the honour of a triumph in Rome. Etruria was subdued (460), and obtained a truce of forty years. ( J ) The Samnites still maintained an obstinate struggle of mingled successes and reverses. In 461, after hav- ing taken an oath to conquer or die, thirty thousand of them were left on the field of battle of Aquilonia. A few months later, the celebrated Pontius, the hero of Furcse Caudinse, re-appeared, at the end of twenty- nine years, at the head of his fellow-citizens, and in- flicted upon the son of Fabius a check, which the lat- ter soon retrieved with the assistance of his father. ( 2 ) Finally, in 464, two Roman armies re-commenced, in (') Volsiniae, Perusia, and Arretium. (Titus Linus, X. 37.) (*) Orosius, III. 22. Zonaras, VII. 2. Eutropius, II. 9. CONQUEST OF ITALY. 87 Samnium, a war of extermination, which led for the fourth time to the renewal of the ancient treaties and the cession of a certain extent of territory. At the same epoch, an insurrection which broke out in the Sabine territory was put down by Curius Deiitatus. Central Italy was conquered. The peace with the Samnites lasted five years (464-469). Rome extended her frontiers, and forti- fied those of the peoples placed under her protector- ate ; and at the same time established new military forts. The right of city without suffrage was accorded to the Sabines, and prefects were given to some of the towns of the valley of the Vulturnus ( Venafrum and Allifce). ( 1 ) A Latin colony, of twenty thousand men, was sent to Venusia to watch over Southern It- aly. ( 2 ) It commanded at the same time Samnium, Apulia, and Lucania. If, owing to the treaty con- cluded with the Greek towns, the Roman supremacy extended over the south of the peninsula, to the north the Etruscans could not be reckoned as allies, since nothing more than truces had been concluded with them. In Umbria, the small tribe of the Sarsinates remained independent, and all the coast district from the Rubicon to the -^Esis was in the power of the Se- nones; on their southern frontier the Roman colony of Sena Gallica (Sinigaglici) was founded ; the coast of Picenuni was watched by that of Castrum Novum and by the Latin fortress of Hatria (465). ( 3 ) O Velleius Paterculus, 1. 14. Festus, under the word Prasfecturce, p. 233. ( a ) Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Excerpta, p. 2335, edit. Schweighseuser. ( 3 ) Polybins, H. 19,24. 88 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^SAB. VIII. The power of Rome had increased consider- ably. The Samnites, who hitherto had Third coalition of the * ^i U a S nT 8 ; in G d aU T^n: played the first part, were no longer in a condition to plan further coalitions, and one people alone could hardly be rash enough to provoke the Republic. Yet the Lucanians, always hesitating, gave this time the signal for a general re- volt. The attack on Thurium, by the Lucanians and Bruttians, became the occasion of a new league, into which entered successively the Tarentines, the Sam- nites, the Etruscans, and even the Gauls. The north was soon in flames, and Etruria again became the bat- tle-field. A Roman army, which had hastened to re- lieve Arretium, was put to rout by the Etruscans unit- ed with Gaulish mercenaries. The Senones, to whom these belonged, having massacred the Roman ambas- sadors sent to expostulate on their violation of the treaty with the Republic, the Senate sent against them two legions who drove them back beyond the Rubi- con. The Gaulish tribe of the Boians, alarmed by the fate of the Senones, descended immediately into Um- bria, and, rallying the Etruscans, prepared to march to renew the sack of Rome ; but their march was arrest- ed, and two successive victories, at Lake Vadimo, (471) and Populonia (472), enabled the Senate to conclude a convention which drove back the Boians into their old territory. Hostilities continued with the Etruscans during two years, after which their sub- mission completed the conquest of Northern Italy. IX. Free to the north, the Romans turned their ef- CONQUEST OF ITALY. 89 us in itaiy. forts against the south of Italy; war was Submission of Taren- -. -, 1 , m jl l/> tum (474-4S8). declared against larentum, the people or which had attacked a Roman flotilla. While the con- sul ^Emilius invested the town, the first troops of Pyr- rims, called in by the Tarentines, disembarked in the port (474). This epoch marks a new phase in the destinies of Rome, who is going, for the first time, to measure herself with Greece. Hitherto the legions have "never had to combat really regular armies, but they have become disciplined in war by incessant struggles in the mountains of Samnium and Etruria ; henceforth, they will have to face old soldiers disciplined in skil- ful tactics and commanded by an experienced warrior. The King of Epirus, after having already twice lost and recovered his kingdom, and invaded and aban- doned Macedonia, dreamt of conquering the West. On the news of his arrival at the head of twenty-five thousand soldiers and twenty elephants, (*) the Ro- mans enrolled all citizens capable of bearing arms, even the proletaries ; but, admirable example of cour- age ! they rejected the support of the Carthaginian fleet with this proud declaration: "The Republic only entertains wars which it can sustain with its own forces." ( 2 ) While fifty thousand men, under the or- ders of the consul Lsevinus, march against the King of Epirus, to prevent his junction with the Samnites, another army enters Lucania. The consul Tiberius Coruncanius holds Etruria, again in agitation. Last- ly, an army of reserve guards the capital. 0) Titus Livius, Epitome, XII., XIIL, XIV. Plutarch, Pyrrhus, et seq. Florus, 1. 18. Eutropius, II. 11, et seq. Zonaras, VIII. 2. ( 2 ) Valerius Maximus, III. vii. 10. 90 HISTORY OF JULIUS Laevinus encountered the King of Epirus near Her- aclea, a colony of Tarentum (474). Seven times in succession the legions charged the phalanx, which was on the point of giving way, when the elephants, ani- mals unknown to the Romans, decided the victory in favour of the enemy. A single "battle had delivered to Pyirhus all the south of the Peninsula, where the Greek towns received him with enthusiasm. But, though victor, he had sustained considerable losses, and learned at the same time the effeminacy of the Greeks of Italy, and the energy of a people of soldiers. He offered peace, and asked of the Senate liberty for the Samnites, the Lucanians, and especially for the Greek towns. Old Appius Claudius declared it impossible so long as Pyrrhus occupied Italian soil, and peace was refused. The king then resolved to march upon Rome through Campania, where his troops made great booty. Lsevinus, made prudent by his defeat, satisfied him- self with watching the enemy's army, and succeeded in covering Capua; whence he followed Pyrrhus from place to place, looking out for a favourable opportuni- ty. This prince, advancing by the Latin Way, had reached Prseneste without obstacle, (*) when, sur- rounded by three Roman armies, he found himself under the necessity of falling back and retiring into Lucania. Next year, reckoning on finding new aux- iliaries among the peoples of the east, he attacked Apulia ; but the fidelity of the allies in Central Italy was not shaken. Victorious at Asculum (Ascoli di (') Appian (Samnite Wars, X. iii., p. 65) says that Pyrrhus advanced as far as Anagnia. CONQUEST OF ITALY. 91 Satricmo) (475), but without a decisive success, and encountering always the same resistance, he seized the first opportunity of quitting Italy to conquer Sicily (476-78). During this time, the Senate re-establish- ed the Roman domination in Southern Italy, and even seized upon some of the Greek towns, among the rest Locri^and Heraclea. (f) Samnium, Lucania, and Brut- tium were again given up to the power of the legions, and forced to surrender lands and renew treaties of alliance ; on the coast, Tarentum and Rhegium alone remained independent. The Samnites still resisted, and the Roman army encamped in their country in 478 and 479. Meanwhile Pyrrhus returns to Italy, reckoning on arriving in time to deliver Samnium; but he is defeated at Beneventum by Curius Denta- tus, and returns to his country. The invasion of Pyr- rhus, cousin of Alexander the Great, and one of his successors, appears as one of the last efforts of Grecian civilisation expiring at the feet of the rising grandeur of Roman civilisation. The war against the King of Epirus produced two remarkable results : it improved the Romans in mili- tary tactics, and introduced between the combatants those mutual regards of civilised nations which teach men to honour their adversaries, to spare the van- quished, and to lay aside wrath when the struggle is ended. The King of Epirus treated his Roman pris- oners with great generosity. Cineas, sent to the Sen- ate at Rome, and Fabricius, envoy to Pyrrhus, earned back from their mission a profound respect for those whom they had combated. (') Cicero, Oration for Balbus, xxii. 92 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. In the following years Rome took Tarentum (482), ( a ) finally pacified Samnium, and took posses- sion of Rhegium (483-485). Since the battle of Mount Graurus, seventy-two years had passed, and sev- eral generations had succeeded each other, without seeing the end of this long and sanguinary quarrel. The Samnites had been nearly exterminated, and yet the spirit of independence and liberty remained deep- ly rooted in their mountains. When, at the end of two centuries and a half, the war of the allies shall come, it is there still that the cause of equality of rights will find its strongest support. The other peoples underwent quickly the laws of the conqueror. The inhabitants of Picenum, as a punishment for their revolt, were despoiled of a part of their territory, and a certain number among them received new lands in the south of Campania, near the Gulf of Salernum (Picentini) (486). In 487, the submission of the Saleritines allowed the Romans to seize Brundusium, the most important port of the Adriatic. ( 2 ) The Sarsinates were reduced the years following. ( 3 ) Finally, Volsinium, a town of Etmria, was again numbered among the allies of the Repub- lic. The Sabines received the right of suffrage. Italy, become henceforth Roman, extended from the Rubi- con to the Straits of Messina. X. During this period, the conquest of the subju- preponderance of g ated countries was ensured by the foun- dation of colonies. Rome became thus 0) Titus Livius, Epitome, XIV. Orosius, IV. 3. ( 8 ) Floras, I. 20. (*) Titus Livius, Epitome, XV. Fasti Capitolini, an. 487. CONQUEST Or ITALY. 93 encircled by a girdle of fortresses commanding all the passages which led to Latium, and closing the roads to Campania, Samnium, Etruria, and Gaul. (*) At the opening of the struggle which ended in the ( l ) ROMAN COLONIES. Third period : 416-488. Anlium (416). A maritime colony (Volsci). Torre d'Anzo or Porto d'Anzo. Terracina (425). A maritime colony (Aurunci). ( Via Appia.) Terra- dna. Minturnce. (459). A maritime colony (Aurunci). (Via Appia.") Huins near Trajetta. Sinuessa (459). A maritime colony (Campania). ( Via Appia.") Near Rocca di Mondragone. Sena Gallica (465). A maritime colony (Umbria, in agro Gallico). ( Via Valeria,") Sinigaglia. Castrum Novwn (465). A maritime colony (Picenum). (Via Valeria.") Giulia Nuova. LATIN COLONIES. Coles (420). Campania. (Via Appia.") Calvi. Fregellce. (426). Volsci. In the valley of the Liris. Ceprano (?). De- stroyed in 629. * Luceria (440). Apulia. Lucera. Suessa Aurunca (441). Aurunci. ( Via Appia.*) Sessa. Pontice (441). Island opposite Circeii. Ponza. Saticula (441). On the boundary between Samnium and Campania. Prestia, near Santa Agata de 1 Goti. Disappeared early. Interamna (Lirinas) (442). Volsci. Teraine. Not inhabited. Sara (451). On the boundary between the Volsci and the Samnites. Sora. Already colonised in a previous period. AlbaFucensis (451). Marsi. (Via Valeria.) Alba, a village near Avez- zano. Narnia (455). Umbria. (Via Flaminia.) Narni. Strengthened in 555. Carseoli (456). -3Squi. (Via Valeria.) Cerita, Osteria del Cavaliere, near Carsoli. Venusia (463). Frontier between Lucania and Apulia. ( Via Appia.) \ Venosa. Re-fortified in 554. Adria (or Hatria) (465). Picennm. ( Via Valeria and Sataria). Adri. Cosa (481). Etruria or Campania. Ansedonia (?), near Orbitello. Ke- fortified in 557. Pce&tum (481). Lucania. Pesto. Ruins. Ariminum (486). Umbria, in agro Gallico. (Via Flaminia.') Rimini. Beneventum (486). Samnium. (ViaAppia.) Benevento. 94 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. conquest of Italy, there were only twenty-seven tribes of Roman citizens ; the creation of eight new tribes (the two last in 513) raised finally the number to thirty-five, of which twenty-one were reserved to the old Roman people and fourteen to the new citizens. Of these the Etruscans had four ; the Latins, the Vol- sci,the Ausones, the JEqui, and the Sabines, each two ; but, these tribes being at a considerable distance from the capital, the new citizens could hardly take part in the comitia, and the majority, with its influence, re- mained with those who dwelt at Rome. (*) After 513, no more tribes were created ; those who received the rights of citizens were only placed in the previous- ly existing tribes ; so that the members of one indi- vidual tribe were scattered in the provinces, and the number of those inscribed went on increasing contin- ually by individual additions, and by the tendency more and more apparent to raise the municipia of the second order to the rank of the first order. Thus, towards the middle of the sixth century, the towns of the -d its interests : Fabius Rullianus, for instance, the victor in so many battles, received the name of "most great" (Maximus) only for having, at the time of his censorship, annulled in the coniitia the influence of the poor class, composed of freedmen, whom he dis- tributed among the urban tribes (454), where their votes were lost in the multitude of others. ( ] ) The popular party, on its own side, ceased not to demand new concessions, or to claim the revival of those which had fallen out of use. Thus, it obtain- ed, in 428, the re-establishment of the law of Servius Tullius, which decided that the goods only of the debtor, and not his body, should be responsible for his debt. ( 2 ) In 450, Flavius, the son of a freedman, made public the calendar and the formulae of proceed- ings, which deprived the patricians of the exclusive knowledge of civil and religious law. ( 3 ) But the lawyers found means of weakening the effects of the measure of Flavius by inventing new formulae, which 0) Titus Livius, IX. 46. ( 5 ) "The goods of the debtor, not his body, should be responsible for the debt. Thus all the captured citizens were free, and it was forbidden for ever to put in bonds a debtor." (Titus Livius, VIII. 28.) ( 3 ) Ignorance of the calendar, and of the method of fixing the festivals, left to the pontiffs alone the knowledge of the days when it was permitted to plead. 100 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. were almost unintelligible to the public. (') The plebeians, in 454, were admitted into the college of the pontiffs, and into that of the augurs ; the same year, it was found necessary to renew for the third time the law Valeria, de provocatione. In 468, the people again withdrew to the Janicu- lum, demanding the remission of debts, and crying out against usury. ( 2 ) Concord was restored only when they had obtained, first, by the law Hortensia, that the plebiscita should be obligatory on all ; and next, by the law Marcia, that the orders obtained through Publilius Philo in 415 should be restored to vigour. These orders, as we have seen above, obliged the Senate to declare in advance whether or not the laws presented to the comitia were contrary to public and religious law. ( 3 ) The ambition of Rome seemed to be without bounds; yet all her wars had for reason or pretext the defence of the weak and the protection of her al- lies. Indeed, the cause of the wars against the Sam- nites was sometimes the defence of the inhabitants of Capua, sometimes that of the inhabitants of Palaeopo- lis, sometimes that of the Lucanians. The war against Pyrrhus had its origin in the assistance claimed by the inhabitants of Thurium ; and the support claimed by the Mamertines will soon lead to the first Punic war. The Senate, we have seen, put in practice the prin- ciples which found empires and the virtues to which ( l ) " The lawyers, for fear that their services might become useless in judi- cial proceedings, invented certain formulae, in order to make themselves neces- sary." (Cicero, Pro Murena, xi.) ( 3 ) Titus Livius, Epitome, XI. Pliny, XVI. x. 37. ( 3 ) Cicero, Brutus, C. xiv. Zonaras, Annales, VIII. 2. CONQUEST OP ITALY. 101 * war gives birth. Thus, for all the citizens, equality of rights ; in face of danger to their country, equality of duties and even suspension of liberty. To the most worthy, honours and the command. No magis- terial charge for him who has not served in the ranks of the army. The example is furnished by the most illustrious and richest families : at the battle of Lake Regillus (258), the principal senators were mingled in the ranks of the legions; (') at the combat near the Cremera, the three hundred and six Fabii, who all, according to Titus Livius, were capable of filling the highest offices, perished fighting. Later, at Cannae, eighty senators, who had enrolled themselves as mere soldiers, fell on the field of battle. ( 2 ) The triumph is accorded for victories which enlarged the territory, but not for those which only recovered lost ground. No triumph in civil wars: ( 3 ) in such case,. success, be what it may, is always a subject for public mourning. The consuls or proconsuls seek to be useful to their country without false susceptibility; to-day in the first rank, to-morrow in the second, they serve with the same devotion under the orders of him whom they commanded the previous day. Servilius, consul in 281, becomes, the year following, the lieutenant of Valerius. Fabius, after so many triumphs, consents to be only lieutenant to his son. At a later period, Flamininus, who had vanquished the King of Macedo- nia, descends again through patriotism, after the vic- (') "You see here all the principal senators who set you the example. They will partake with you the fatigues and perils of war, although the laws and their age exempt them from carrying arms." (Speech of the Dictator Postu- mius tojiis troops ; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, VI. 9.) ( 2 ) Titus Livius, X., XII. 49. ( 3 ) Valerius Maxirous, II. viii. 4, 7. 102 HISTORY OF JULIUS (LESAR. tory of Cynoscephalse, to the grade of tribune of the soldiers ; (*) the great Scipio himself, after the defeat of Hannibal, serves as lieutenant under his brother in the war against Antiochus. To sacrifice everything to patriotism is the first duty. By devoting themselves to the gods of Hades, like Curtius and the two Decii, people believed they bought, at the price of their lives, the safety of the others or victory. ( 2 ) Discipline is enforced even to cruelty : Manlius Torquatus, after the example of Pos- tumius Tubertus, punishes with death the disobedi- ence of his son, though he had gained a victory. The soldiers who have fled are decimated; those who aban- don their ranks or the field of battle are devoted, some to execution, others to dishonour; and those who have allowed themselves to be made prisoners by the ene- my are disdained as unworthy of the price of free- dom. ( 3 ) Surrounded by warlike neighbours, Rome must ei- ther triumph or cease to exist ; hence her superiority in the art of war, for, as Montesquieu says, in transient wars most of the examples are lost ; peace brings oth- er ideas, and its faults and even its virtues are forgot- ten ; hence that contempt of treason and that disdain for the advantages it promises : Cainillus sends home to their parents the children of the first families of Falerii, delivered up to him by their schoolmaster ; the Senate rejects with indignation the offer of the physician of Pyrrhus, who proposes to poison that prince; hence that religious observance of oaths and that respect for engagements which have been con- (') Plutarch, Flamininus, xxviii. ( 2 ) Aur. Victor, ///. Men, xxxvi. and xxvii. ( 3 ) Titus Livius, IX. Id CONQUEST OF ITALY. 103 tracted : the Roman prisoners to_ whom Pyrrhus had igiven permission to repair to Rome for the festival of Saturn, all return to him faithful to their word ; and Regulus leaves the most memorable example of faith- fulness to his oath ! hence that skilful and inflexible policy which refuses peace after a defeat, or a treaty with the enemy so long as he is on the soil of their country ; which makes use of war to divert people from domestic troubles ; (*) gains the vanquished by benefits if they submit, and admits them by degrees into the great Roman family ; and, if they resist, strikes them without pity and reduces them to slav- ery; ( 2 ) hence that anxious provision for multiplying upon the conquered territories the race of agricultur- ists and soldiers ; hence, lastly, the improving spec- tacle of a town which becomes a people, and of a peo- ple which embraces the world. (') "A sedition was already rising between the patricians and the people, and the terror of so sudden a war (with the Tiburtini) stifled it." (Titus Livius, VII. 12.) " Appius Sabinus, to prevent the evils which are an inevitable con- sequence of idleness, joined with want, determined to occupy the people in exter- nal ivars, in order that, gaining their living for themselves, by finding on the lands of the enemy abundant provisions which were not to be had in Home, they might render at the same time some service to the State, instead of troubling at an unseasonable moment the senators in the administration of affairs. He said that a town which, like Rome, disputed empire with all others, and was hated by them, could not want a decent pretext for making war ; that, if they would judge the future by the past, they would see clearly that all the seditions which had hitherto torn the Republic had never arrived except in time of peace, when people no longer feared anything from without." (Dionysius of Halicar- nassus, IX. 43.) ( 2 ) Claudius made war thus in Umbria, and took the town of Camerinum, the inhabitants of which he sold for slaves. (See Valerius Maximus, VI. v. 1. Titus Livius, Epitome, XV.) Camillus, after the capture of Veii, caused the free men to be sold by auction. (Titus Livius, V. 22.) In 365, the pris- oners, the greater part Etruscans, were sold in the same manner. (Titus Liv- ius, VI. 4.) The auxiliaries of the Samnites, after the battle of Allifaa (447), were sold as slaves to the number of 7,000. (Titus Livius, IX. 42.) CHAPTER IV. PROSPERITY OF THE BASIN OF THE MEDITERRANEAN BEFORE THE PUNIC WARS. I. ROME had required two hundred and forty-four commerwoftheMed- y ears to form ^ constitution under the kings, a hundred and seventy-two to es- tablish and consolidate the consular Republic, seven- ty-two to complete the conquest of Italy, and now it will cost her nearly a century and a half to obtain the domination of the world that is, of Northern Af- rica, Spain, the south of Gaul, Illyria, Epirus, Greece, Macedonia, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. Before un- dertaking the recital of these conquests, let us halt an instant to consider the condition of the basin of the Mediterranean at this period, of that sea round which were successively unfolded all the great dramas of ancient history. .In this examination we shall see, not without a feeling of regret, vast countries where formerly produce, monuments, riches, numerous armies and fleets all, indeed, revealed an advanced state of civilisation now deserts or in a state of barbarism. The Mediterranean had seen grow and prosper in turn on its coasts Sidon, and Tyre, and then Greece. Sidon, already a flourishing city before the time of Homer, is soon eclipsed by the supremacy of Tyre ; then Greece comes to carry on, in competition with her, the commerce of the interior sea; an age of pacific MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. 105 greatness and fruitful rivalries. To the Phoenicians chiefly, the South, the East, Africa, Asia beyond Mount Taurus, the Erythrean Sea (tlie Red Sea and the Per- sian Gidf}, the ocean, and the distant voyages. To the Greeks, all the northern coasts, which they cov- ered with their thousand settlements. Phoenicia de- votes herself to adventurous enterprises and lucrative speculations. ' Greece, artistic before becoming a trad- er, propagates by her colonies her mind and her ideas. This fortunate emulation soon disappears before the creation of two new colonies sprung from their bosom. The splendour of Carthage replaces that of Tyre. Alexandria is substituted for Greece. Thus a Western or Spanish Phoenicia shares the commerce of the world with an Eastern and Egyptian Greece, the fruit of the intellectual conquests of Alexander. II. Rich in the spoils of twenty different peoples, Carthage was the proud capital of a vast empire. Its ports, hollowed out by the hand of man, were capable of containing a great num- ber of ships. (') Her citadel, Byrsa, was two miles in circuit. On the land side the town was defended by a triple enclosure twenty-five stadia in length, thirty cubits high, and supported by towers of four storeys, capable of giving shelter to 4,000 horse, 300 elephants, and 20,000 foot soldiers ; ( 2 ) it enclosed an immense population, since, in the last years of its re- sistance, after a struggle of a century, it still counted (') "The military port alone contained two hundred and twenty vessels." (Appian, Punic Wars, VIII. 96, p. 437, ed. Schweighaauser.) 0) Appinn, Punic Wars, VIII 95, p. 436. 5- 106 HISTORY OF JULIUS 700,000 inhabitants. (*) Its monuments were worthy of its greatness : among its remarkable buildings was the temple of the god Aschmoun, assimilated by the Greeks to JEsculapius ; ( 2 ) that of the sun, covered with plates of gold valued at a thousand talents ; ( 3 ) and the mantle or peplum, destined for the image of their great goddess, which cost a hundred and twen- ty. ( 4 ) The empire of Carthage extended from the frontiers of Cyrenaica (the country of Barca, in the regency of Tripoli) into Spain ; she was the metropo- lis of all the north of Africa, and, in Libya alone, pos- sessed three hundred towns. ( 5 ) Nearly all the isles of the Mediterranean, to the west and south of Italy, had received her factories. Carthage had imposed her sovereignty upon all the ancient Phoenician es- tablishments in this part of the world, and had levied upon them an annual contingent of soldiers and trib- (') Strabo, XVII. Hi: 15. ( 2 ) Appian, Punic Wars,Vm. 130, p. 490. ( 3 ) 5,820,000 francs [232, 800]. ( Appian, Punic Wars, CXX VII. 486.) Fol- lowing the labours of MM. Letronne, Bockh, Mommsen, &c. , we have admitted fpr the sums indicated in the course of the present work the following reckon- ings : The as of copper $ deniers=5 centimes. The sestertius =0.97 5 grammes = 19 centimes. The denarius =3. 898 grammes =75 centimes. The great sestertius = 100,000 sestertii = 19, 000 francs [760]. The Attic or Euboic talent, of 26 kilogrammes, 196 grammes = 5, 821 francs [232 16s.]. The mina, of 436 grammes=97 francs. The drachma, of 4.37 grammes=97 centimes. The obohts, of 0.73 grammes=16 centimes. The ^Eginetic talent was equivalent to 8,500 Attic drachmas (37 kilogram- mes,^ gr.)=8,270 francs [330 16s.]. The Ba-bylonic silver talent is of 33 kil- ogrammes, 42 = 7,426 francs [297]. (See, for details, Mommsen, Jtiimisches Miinzwesen, pp. 24-26, 55. Hultsch, Griecftische wid Riiinische Metrologie, pp. 135-137.) ( 4 ) Nearly 700,000 francs [28,000]. (Athenseus, XII. Iviii. 509, cd. Schweighscuser.) ( s ) Strabo, XVII. iii. 15. MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. 107 ute. In the interior of Africa, she sent caravans to seek elephants, ivory, gold, and black slaves, which she afterwards exported ( ! ) to the trading places on the Mediterranean. In Sicily, she gathered oil and wine ; in the isle of Elba, she mined for iron ; from Malta, she drew valuable tissues ; from Corsica, wax and honey ; from Sardinia, corn, metals, and slaves ; from the Baleares, mules and fruits ; from Spain, gold, silver, and lead ; from Mauritania, the hides -of ani- mals ; she sent as far as the extremity of Britain, to the Cassiterides (the Stilly Islands), ships to purchase tin. ( 2 ) Within her walls industry nourished great- ly, and tissues of great celebrity were fabricated. ( 3 ) No market of the ancient world could be compared with that of Carthage, to which men of all nations crowded. Greeks, Gauls, Ligurians, Spaniards, Liby- ans, came in multitudes to serve under her stand- ard ; (*) the Numidians lent her a redoubtable caval- ry. ( 5 ) Her fleet was formidable ; it amounted at this epoch to five hundred vessels. Carthage pos- sessed a considerable arsenal ; ( 6 ) we may appreciate its importance from the fact, that, after her conquest (') Scylax of Caryanda, Perijilus, p. 51 et seq., ed. Hudson. ( ! ) See the work of Heeren, Ideen iiber die Politik, den Verkehr, und den Han- del der vornehmsten Volker der altcn Welt, Part I., Vol. II., sees. v. and vi., p. 163 et seq., 188 et seq. 3rd edit. ( 3 ) Athenseus informs us that Polemon had composed an entire treatise on the mantles of the divinities of Carthage. (XII. Iviii. 541.) ( 4 ) Herodotus, VII. 145. Polybius, I. 67. Titus Livius, XXVIII. 41. ( 5 ) Reckoning, after Titus Livius, her troops at the time of the second Punic War, we find a force of 291,000 foot and 9,500 horse. (Titus Livius, Books XXI. to XXIX.) ( 6 ) Carthage, under certain circumstance's, could make daily a hundred and forty shields, three hundred swords, five hundred lances, and a thousand darts for catapults. (Strabo, XVII. iii. 15.) 108 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJSSAB. by Scipio, she delivered to him two hundred thou- sand suits of armour, and three thousand machines of war. ( l ) So many troops and stores imply immense revenues. Even after the battle of Zama, Polybius could still call her the richest town in the world. Yet she had already paid heavy contributions to the Ro- mans. ( 2 ) An excellent system of agriculture con- tributed no less than her commerce to her prosperity. A great number of agricultural colonies ( 3 ) had been established, which, in the time of Agathocles, amount- ed to more than two hundred. They were ruined by the war (440 of Rome). ( 4 ) Byzacena (the southern part of the regency of Tunis) was the granaiy of Car- thage.0) This province, surnamed Emipfoia, as being the trading country par excellence, is vaunted by the geog- rapher Scylax ( 6 ) as the most magnificent and fertile part of Libya. It had, in the time of Strabo, numer- ous towns, so many magazines of the merchandise of the interior of Africa. Polybius ( 7 ) speaks of its horses, oxen, sheep, and goats, as forming innumerable herds, such as he had never seen elsewhere. The small town of Leptis alone paid to the Carthaginians the enormous contribution of a talent a day (5,821 francs [232 16s.]). ( 8 ) (') Strabo, XVII. iii. 15. () In 513, 3,200 Euboic talents (18,627,200 francs [745,088]); in 516, 1,200 talents (6, 985, 200 francs [279, 408]); in 552, 10,000 talents (58,210,000 francs [2,328,400]). Scipio, the first Africanus, brought, besides this, 123,000 pounds weight of gold from this town. (Polybius, I. 62, 63, 88 ; XV. 18. Titus Livins, XXX. 37, 45.) ( 3 ) Ajistotle, Politics, VII. iii. 5. Polybius, L 72. (*) Diodorus Siculus, XX. 17. ( 5 ) Pliny, Natural History, V. iii. 24. (*) Scylax of Caryanda, Periphts, p. 49, edit. Hudson. O Polybius, XII. 3. (") Titus Livius, XXXIV. 62. MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. 109 This fertility of Africa explains the importance of the towns on the coast of the Syrtes, an importance, it is true, revealed by later testimonies, because they date from the decline of Carthage, but which must apply still more forcibly to the flourishing condition which preceded it. In 537, the vast port of the isle Cercina (Kirkeni, in the regency of Tunis, opposite Sfax) had paid ten talents to Servilius. (') More to the west, Hippo Kegius (Bono) was still a consider- erable maritime town in the time of Jugurtha. ( 2 ) Tingis (Tangters), in Mauritania, which boasted of a very ancient origin, carried on a great trade with Bse- tica. Three African peoples in these countries lay under the influence and often the sovereignty of Car- thage : the Massylian Numidians, who afterwards had Cirta (Constantine) for their capital; the Masssesyl- ian Numidians, who occupied the provinces of Al- giers and Oran; and the Mauri, or Moors, spread over Morocco. These nomadic peoples maintained rich droves of cattle, and grew great quantities of corn. Hanno, a Carthaginian sea-captain, sent, towards 245, to explore the extreme parts of the African coast beyond the Straits of Gades, had founded a great number of settlements, no traces of which remained in the time of Pliny. ( 3 ) These colonies introduced commerce among the Mauritanian and Nuniidian tribes, the peoples of Morocco, and perhaps even those of Senegal. But it was not only in Africa that the (') 58,200 francs (2,328). (Titus Livius, XXII. 31.) ( a ) Sallust, Jugurtha, xix. ( 3 ) Pliny, citing this fact, throws doubt upon it. (Natural History, V. i. 8.) See the Periplus of Hanno, in the collection of the minor Greek geographers. 110 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. possessions of the Carthaginians extended ; they em- braced Spain, Sicily, and Sardinia III. Iberia or Spain, with its six great rivers, navi- gable to the ancients, its long chains of mountains, its dense Avoods, and the fertile valleys of Bsetica (Aiidaliisia), appears to have nourished a population numerous, warlike, rich by its mines, its harvests, and its commerce. The centre of the peninsula was occupied by the Iberian and Celti- berian races ; on the coasts, the Carthaginians and the Greeks had settlements; through contact with the Phoenician merchants, the populations of the coast districts attained a certain degree of civilisation, and from the mixture of the natives with the foreign col- onists sprang a mongrel population, which, while it preserved the Iberic character, had adopted the mer- cantile habits of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians. Once established in Spain, the Carthaginians and Greeks turned to useful purpose the timber which covered the mountains. Gades (Cadiz), a sort of fac- tory founded at the extremity of Baetica by the Car- thaginians, became one of their principal maritime arsenals. It was there that the ships were fitted out which ventured on the ocean in search of the prod- ucts of Armorica, or Britain, and even of the Canaries. Although Gades had lost some of its importance by the foundation of Carthagena (New Cartilage)^ 526, it had still, in the time of Strabo, so numerous a pop- ulation that it was in this respect inferior only to Rome. The tables of the census showed five hund- red citizens of the equestrian order, a number equalled MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. by none of the Italian cities, except Patavium (Pa- dua). (') To Gades, celebrated for its temple of Her- cules, flowed the riches of all Spain. The sheep and horses of Bsetica rivalled in renown those of the As- turias. Corduba ( Cordova] , Hispalis (Seville) , where, at a later period, the Romans founded colonies, were already great places of commerce, and had ports for the vessels which ascended the Bsetis (Guadalqui- vir). ( 2 ) Spain was rich in precious metals ; gold, silver, iron, were there the object of industrial activity. ( 3 ) At Osca (Huescd), they worked mines of silver ; at Sisapo (Almaden), silver and mercury. ( 4 ) At Coti- nge, copper was found along with gold. Among the Oretani, at Castulo (Cazlona, on the Guadalimar), the silver mines, in the time of Polybius, gave employ- ment to 40,000 persons, and produced daily 25,000 drachmas. ( 5 ) In thirty-two years, the Roman gener- als carried home from the peninsula considerable sums. ( G ) The abundance of metals in Spain explains (') Strabo, III. v. 3. 0) Strabo, III. ii. 1. ( 3 ) Pliny, Natural History, III. iii. 30. Strabo, III. ii. 8. () Strabo, III. ii. 3. Pliny, III. i. 3 ; XXXIII. vii. 40. Above 25,000 francs [1,000]. (Strabo, III. ii. 10.) ( 6 ) 767,695 pounds of silver and 10,918 pounds of gold, without reckoning what was furnished by certain partial impositions, sometimes very heavy, such as those of Marcolica, one million of sestertii (230,000 francs [9,200]), and of Certima, 2, 400,000 sestertii (550,000 francs [22,000]). (See Books XXVIII. to XL VI. of Titus Livius.) Such were the resources of Spain, even in tjie smallest localities, that in 602,C.Marcellus imposed on a little town of the Cel- tiberians (Odlis) a contribution of thirty talents of silver (about 174,600 francs [6,984]); and this contribution was regarded by the neighbouring cities as most moderate. (Appian, Wars of Spain, VI. xlviii. 158, ed. Schweighaeuser.) Posidonius, cited by Strabo (III. iv., p. 135), relates that M. Marcellus extort- ed from the Celtiberians a tribute of six hundred talents (about 3,492,600 francs [139, 704]). 112 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. how so great a number of vessels of gold and silver was found among many of the chiefs or petty kings of the Iberian nations. Polybius compares one of them, for his luxury, with the king of the fabulous Phaeaces. (*) To the north, and in the centre of the peninsula, agriculture and the breeding of cattle were the prin- cipal sources of wealth. It was there that were made the says (vests of flannel or goats' hair), which were exported in great numbers to Italy. ( 2 ) In the Ter- raconese, the cultivation of flax was very productive ; the inhabitants had been the first to weave those fine cloths called carbasa, which were objects greatly prized as far as Greece. ( 3 ) Leather, honey, and salt were brought by cargoes to the principal ports along the coast ; at Emporise (Ampwias), a settlement of the Phocseans in Catalonia ; at Saguntum, ( 4 ) founded by Greeks from the island of Zacynthus ; at Tarraco (Tarragona), one of the most ancient of the Phoeni- cian settlements in Spain ; and at Malaca (Malaga), whence were exported all sorts of salt fish. ( 5 ) Lusi- tania, neglected by the Phoenician or Carthaginian ships, was less favoured. Yet we see, by the passage of Polybius ( 6 ) which enumerates the mercantile ex- ports of this province with their prices, that its agri- cultural products were very abundant. ( 7 ) ( l ) A fabulous people, spoken of by Homer. (Athenrens, I. xxviii. 60, edit. Schweighaeuser.) (i) Diodorus Siculus, V. 34, 35. ( 3 ) Pliny, Natural History, XIX. i. 10. (*) In the time of Hannibal, this town was one of the richest in the penin- sula. (Appian, Wars of Spain, xii. 113.) ( 5 ) Strabo, III. iv. 2. () Polybins, XXXIV., Fraym., 8. ( 7 ) The medimnus of barley (52 litres) sold for one drachma (97 centimes) ; the medimnus of wheat, 9 oboli (about 1 franc 45 centime.*). (The medium MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. 113 The prosperity of Spain appears also from the vast amount of its population. According to some au- thors, Tiberius Gracchus took from the Celtiberians three hundred oppida. In Turdetania (jpart of An- dalusia), according to Strabo, there were counted no less than two hundred towns. (*) Appian, the histo- rian of the Spanish wars, points out the multitude of petty tribes which the Romans had to reduce, ( 2 ) and during the campaign of Cn. Scipio, more than a hund- red and twenty submitted. ( 3 ) Thus the Iberian peninsula was at that time reck- value of 52 litres in France is 10 francs.) A metretes of wine (39 litres) was worth one drachma (97 centimes) ; a hare, one obolus (16 centimes) ; a goat, one obolus (1C centimes) ; a lamb, from 3 to 4 oboli (50 to 60 centimes) ; a pig of a hundred pounds weight, 5 drachmas (4 francs 85 centimes) ; a sheep, 2 drachmas (1 franc 95 centimes) ; an ox for drawing, 10 drachmas (9 francs 70 centimes) ; a calf, 5 drachmas (4 francs 85 centimes) ; a talent (26 kilogram- mes) of figs, 3 oboli (45 centimes). (') Strabo, III. ii. 1. ( 3 ) Appian, Wars of Spain, i. 102. Pompey, in the trophies which he raised to himself on the coast of Catalonia, affirmed that he had received the submis- sion of eight hundred and seventy-seven oppida. (Pliny, Natural History, III. iii. 18.) Pliny reckoned t\p hundred and ninety-three in Hispania Citerior, and a hundred and seventy-nine in Baetica. (Natural History, III. iii. 18.) We may, moreover, form an idea of the number of inhabitants by the amount of troops raised to resist the Scipios. In adding together the numbers furnished by the historians, we arrive at the fearful total of 317,700 men killed or made prisoners. (Titus Livius, XXX. et seq.~) In 548, we see two nations of Spain, the Ilergetes and the Ausetani, joined with some other petty tribes, put on foot an army of 30,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry. (Titus Livius, XXIX. 1.) We remark fifteen to twenty others whose forces are equal or superior. After the battle of Zama, Spain furnished Hasdrubal with 50,000 footmen and 4,500 horsemen. (Titus Livius, XXVIII. 12, 13.) Cato has no sooner appeared with his fleet before Emporias, than an army of 40,000 Spaniards, who could only have been collected in the surrounding country, is ready prepared to re- sist him. (Appian, Wars of Spain, 40, p. 147.) In Lusitania itself, a country of which the population was much less, we see Servlus Galba and Lucullus kill- ing 12,500 men. (Appian, Wars of Spain, 58, 59, p. 170 et seq.~) Although laid waste and depopulated by these two generals, the country, at the end of a few years, furnished apain to Viriathus considerable forces. ( 3 ) Titus Livius, XXII. 20. H HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. oned among the most populous and richest regions of Europe. IV. The part of Gaul which is bathed by the Med- iterranean offers a spectacle no less satis- Southern Gaul. _ _ _ . . . . factory.- JNumerous migrations, arriving from the East, had pushed back the population of the Seine and the Loire towards the mouths of the Rhone, and already, in the middle of the fourth century be- fore our era, the Gauls found themselves straitened in their frontiers. More civilised than the Iberians, but not less energetic, they combined gentle and hospita- ble manners with great activity, which was further developed by their contact with the Greek colonies spread from the maritime Alps to the Pyrenees. The cultivation of the fields and the breeding of cattle furnished their principal wealth, and their industry found support in the products of the soil and in its herds. Their manufacture consisted of says, not less in repute than those of the Celtiberians, and exported in great quantities to Italy. Good sailors, the Gauls transported by water, on the Seine, the Rhine, the Sa one, the Rhone, and Loire, the merchandise and tim ber which, even from the coasts of the Channel, wen accumulated in the Phocsean trading places on th< Mediterranean. Q Agde (Agatha), Antibes (Antip olis), Nice (Nicced), the isles of Hyeres (Stcediades) Monaco (Portus Herculis Mo?iceci), were so many na val stations which maintained relations with Spair and Italy. ( 2 ) (') Strabo, IV. i. 11 ; ii. 14 ; iii. 3. (') See what M. Amede'e Thierry says, Hist, des Gaul., II. 134 et seq. 3d edit MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. 115 Marseilles possessed but a very circumscribed ter- ritory, but its influence reached far into the interior of Gaul. It is to this town we owe the acclimatisa- tion of the vine and the olive. Thousands of oxen came every year to feed on the thyme in the neigh- bourhood of Marseilles. (*) The Massilian merchants traversed Gaul in all directions to sell their wines and the produce of their manufactures. ( 2 ) Without rising to the rank of a great maritime power, still the small Phocaean republic possessed sufficient resources to make itself respected by Carthage ; it formed an early alliance with the Romans. Massilian Jiouses had, as early as the fifth century of Rome, established at Syracuse, as they did subsequently at Alexandria, factories which show a great commercial activity. ( 3 ) V. Alone in the Tyrrhene Sea, the Ligures had not Lignria, cisalpine yet risen out of that almost savage life :i y ria. which the Iberians, sprung from the same stock, had originally led. If some towns on the Li- gurian coast, and especially Genoa (Genuci), carried on a maritime commerce, they supported themselves by piracy (*) rather than by regular traffic. ( 5 ) On the contrary, Cisalpine Gaul, properly so called, supported, as early as the time of Polybius, a numer- )us population. We may form some idea of it from :he losses this province sustained during a period of twenty-seven years, from 554 to 582 ; Livy gives a to- (') Pliny, XXI. 31. ( 2 ) Diodorus Siculus, V. 26. Athenseus, IV. xxxvi. 94. ( 3 ) Demosthenes, Thirty-second Oration against Zenothemis, 980, edit. Bekker. (*) Strabo, IV. vi. 2, 3. ( 5 ) Diodorus Siculus, V. xxxix. 116 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^SAR. tal of 257,400 men killed, taken, or transported. ( J ) The Gaulish tribes settled in the Cisalpine, though preserving their original manners, had, through their contact with the Etruscans, arrived at a certain de- gree of civilisation. The number of towns in this countiy was not very considerable, but it contained a great abundance of villages. ( 2 ) Addicted to agricul- ture like the other Gauls, the Cisalpines bred in their forests droves of swine in such numbers, that they would have been sufficient, in the time of Strabo, to provision all Rome. ( 3 ) The coins of pure gold, which in recent times have been found in Cisalpine Gaul, especially between the Po and the Adda, and which were struck by the Boii and some of the Ligurian populations, furnish evidence of the abundance of that metal, which was collected in the form of gold sand in the waters of the rivers. (") Moreover, certain towns of Etruscan origin, such as Mantua (Mantua) and Padua (Patamum)^ preserved vestiges of the prosper- ity they had reached at the time when the peoples of Tuscany extended their dominion beyond the Po. At once a maritime town and a place of commerce, Padua, at a remote epoch, possessed a vast territory, and could raise an army of 120,000 men. ( 5 ) The transport of goods was facilitated by means of canals crossing Venetia, partly dug by the Etruscans. Such (') See Titus Livius, XXXII. to XLIL () See Strabo, V. i. 10, 11. () Strabo, V. i. 12. (*) Gold was originally very abundant in Gaul ; but the mines whence it was extracted, and the rivers which carried it, must have been soon exhausted, for the quality of the Gaulish gold coins becomes more and more abased as the date of their fabrication approaches that of the Roman conquest. ( 5 ) Strabo, V. i. 7. Titus Livius, X. 2. MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. H7 were those especially which united Ravenna with Al- tinuni (Altino}, which became at a later period the grand store-house of the Cisalpine territory. (*) The commercial relations entertained by Venetia with Germany, Illyria, and Rhsetia, go back far be- yond the Roman epoch, and, at a remote antiquity, it was Venetia which received the amber from the shores of the Baltic. ( 2 ) All the traffic which was after- wards concentrated at Aquileia, founded by the Ro- mans after the submission of the Veneti, had then for its centre the towns of Venetia ; and the numerous colonies established by the Romans in this part of the peninsula are proofs of its immense resources. More- over, the Veneti, occupied in cultivating their lands and breeding horses, had peaceful manners which fa- cilitated commercial relations, and contrasted with the piratical habits of the populations spread over the north and north-eastern coasts of the Adriatic. The Istrians, the Liburni, and the Illyrians were the nations most formidable, both by their corsairs and by their armies ; their light and rapid barques covered the Adriatic, and troubled the navigation between It- aly and Greece. In the year 524, the Illyrians sent to sea a hundred Zembi, ( 3 ) while their land army counted hardly more than 5,000 men. (*) Illyria was poor, and offered few resources to the Romans, not- withstanding the fertility of its soil. Agriculture was (') Pliny, Natural History, III. xvi. 119. Martial, Epigr., IV. xxv. Anto- nine Itinerary, 126. (") Pliny, Natural History, XXXVII. iii. 11. ( 3 ) Small vessels, quick sailers, and rapid in their movements, excellent for piracy ; also called Kburnce, from the name of the people who employed them. () Polybiug, II. 5. 118 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. neglected, even in the time of Strabo. Istria contain ed a population much more considerable, in proportion to its extent. (') Yet she had, no more than Dalma tia and the rest of Illyria, attained, at the epoch of which we are speaking, that high degree of prosperit} which she acquiaed afterwards by the foundation of Tergeste (Trieste) and Pola. The Roman conquesl delivered the Adriatic from the pirates who infestec it, ( 2 ) and then only, the ports of Dyrrhachium anc Apollonia obtained a veritable importance. VI. Epirus, a country of pastures and shepherds intersected by picturesque mountains, was a sort of Helvetia. Ambracia (no^ Arta), which Pyrrhus had chosen for his residence had become a very fine town, and possessed two the atres. The palace of the king (Pyrrlieuni) formed i veritable museum, for it furnished for the triumph of M. Fulvius Nobilior, in 565, two hundred and eighty five statues in bronze, -two hundred and thirty in mar ble, ( 3 ) and paintings by Zeuxis, mentioned in Pliny. ( 4 ^ The town paid also, on this occasion, five hundred tal ents (2,900,000 francs, [116,000]), and offered tin consul a crown of gold weighing a hundred and fifh thousand talents (nearly 4,000 kilogrammes). ( 5 ) I appears that before the war of Paulus ^Emilius, thi country contained a rather numerous population, an< counted seventy towns, most of them situated in th< (') Titus Livius, XLI. 2, 4, 11. (*) Polybius, II. 8. ( 3 ) Titus Livius, XXXIX. 5. ( 4 ) Pliny, XXXV. 60. ( 5 ) Polybius, XXII. 13. MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. 119 country of the Molossi. (f) After the battle of Pyd- na, the Roman general made so considerable a booty, that, without reckoning the treasury's share, each foot- soldier received 200 denarii (about 200 francs [8]), and each horse-soldier 400 ; in addition to which the sale of slaves arose to the enormous number of 150,000. VII. At the beginning of the first Punic War, Greece proper was divided into four prin- cipal powers: Macedonia, ^Etolia, Achaia, and Sparta. All the continental part, which extends northward of the Gulf of Corinth as far as the mount- ains of Pindus, was under the dependence of Philip ; the western part belonged to the ^Etolians. The Peloponnesus was shared between the Achseans, the tyrant of Sparta, and independent towns. Greece had been declining during about a century, and seen her warlike spirit weaken and her population dimin- ish ; and yet Plutarch, comprising under this name the peoples of the Hellenic race, pretends that their country furnished King Philip with the money, food, and provisions of his army. ( 2 ) The Greek navy had almost disappeared. The Achaean league, which com- prised Argolis, Corinth, Sicyon, and the maritime cit- ies of Achsea, had few ships. On land the Hellenic forces were less insignificant. The ^Etolian league possessed an army of 10,000 men, and, in the war against Philip, pretended to have contributed more than the Romans to the victory of Cynoscephalge. (') Polybius, XXX. XT. o. Titus Livius, XLV. 34. ( 2 ) Plutarch, Flaminintts, 2. 120 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. Greece was still rich in objects of art of all descrip- tions. When, in 535, the King of Macedonia cap- tured the town of Thermse, in ^Etolia, he found in it more than two thousand statues. ( ! ) Athens, in spite of the loss of her maritime suprem- acy, preserved the remains of a civilization which had already attained the highest degree of splendour, ( 2 ) and those incomparable buildings of the age of Peri- cles, the mere name of which reminds us of all that the arts have produced in greatest perfection. Among the most remarkable were the Acropolis, with its Par- thenon and its Propylaaa, masterpieces of Phidias, the statue of Minerva in gold and ivory, and another in bronze, the casque and spear of which were seen afar off at sea. ( 3 ) The arsenal of the Piraeus, built by the architect Philo, was, according to Plutarch, an admi- rable work. ( 4 ) Sparta, although greatly fallen, was distinguished by its monuments and by its manufactures; the fa- mous portico of the Persians, ( 6 ) built after the Medi- an wars the columns of which, in white marble, rep- resented the illustrious persons among the vanquish- ed was the principal ornament of the market. Iron, obtained in abundance from Mount Taygetus, was marvellously worked at Sparta, which was celebrated for the manufacture of arms and agricultural instru- ments. ( 6 ) The coasts of Laconia abounded in shells, (') Polybius, V. 9. ( 2 ) Aristides, Panatken., p. 149. ( 3 ) Pausanms, Attica, xxviii. (*) Plutarch, Syila, 20. ( & ) Pausanias, Laconia, xi. We must further mention the famous temple of bronze of Minerva, the two gymnasia, and the Platanistum, a spacious place where the competitions of the youths took place. (Pausanias, Laconia, xiv.) (*) Stephanas of Byzantium, under the word AaKttaifuav, p. 413. MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. 121 from which was obtained the purple, most valued aft- er that of Phoenicia. ( J ) The port of Gytheum, very- populous, and very active in 559, still possessed great arsenals. ( 2 ) In the centre of the peninsula, Arcadia, although its population was composed of shepherds, had the same love for the arts as the rest of Greece. It pos- sessed two celebrated temples : that of Minerva at Tegaea, built by the architect Scopas, ( 3 ) in which were united the three orders of architecture, and that of Apollo, at Phigalea, ( 4 ) situated at an elevation of 3,000 feet above the level of the sea, and the remains of which still excite the wonder of travellers. Elis, protected by its neutrality, was devoted to the arts of peace. There agriculture flourished ; its fisheries were productive ; it had manufactories of tis- sues of byssus which rivalled the muslins of Cos, and were sold for their weight in gold. ( 5 ) The town of Elis possessed the finest gymnasium in Greece ; peo- ple came to it to prepare themselves (sometimes a year in advance) for competition in the Olympic games. ( 6 ) Olympia was the holy city, celebrated for its sanc- tuary and its consecrated garden, where stood, among a multitude of masterpieces of art, one of the wonders of the world, the statue of Jupiter, the work of Phid- ias, ( 7 ) the majesty of which was such, that Paulus 0) Pausanias, Laconia, xxi. () Titus Livius, XXXIV. 29. ( 3 ) Pausanias, Arcadia, xlv. ( 4 ) Pausanias, Arcadia, xli. Thirty-six columns out of thirty-eight are still standing. ( 5 ) Pliny, Natural History, XIX. i. 4. ( 6 ) Pausanias, Elis, II. 23 and 24. ( T ) Pansanias, Elis, I. ii. 6 122 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^SAR. ^Emilius, when he first saw it, believed he was in the presence of the divinity himself. Argos, the country of several celebrated artists, pos- sessed temples, fountains, a gymnasium, and a theatre ; and its public place had served for a field of battle to the armies of Pyrrhus and Antigonus. It remained, until the subjugation by the Romans, one of the finest cities of Greece. Within its territory were the superb temple of Juno, the ancient sanctuaiy of .the Argives, with the statue of the goddess in gold and silver the work of Polycletus, and the vale of Nemsea, where one of the four national festivals of Greece was cele- brated. (*) Argolis also possessed Epidaurus, with its hot springs ; its temple of ^Esculapius, enriched with the offerings of those who came to be cured of their diseases ; ( 2 ) and its theatre, one of the largest in the country. ( 3 ) Corinth, admirably situated upon the narrow isth- mus which separates the JEgean Sea from the gulf which has preserved its name, ( 4 ) with its dye-houses, its celebrated manufactories of carpets and of bronze, bore witness also to the ancient prosperity of the Hel- lenic race. Its population must have been considera- ble, since there were reckoned in it 460,000 slaves ; ( 5 ) marble palaces rose on all sides, adorned with statues and valuable vases. Corinth had the reputation of () Strabo, VIII. 10, 19. ( 2 ) Pausanias, Corinth, xxviii. 1. (*) Pansanias, Corinth, xxvii. (*) " Goods were not obliged to make the circuit by Corinth ; a direct road crossed the isthmus in the narrowest part, and they had even established there a system of rollers on which vessels of small tonnage were transported from one sea to the other." (Strabo, VIII. ii. 3. Polybius, IV. 19.) (*) Pausanias, Attica, ii. MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. 123 being the most voluptuous of towns. Among its nu- merous temples, that of Venus had in its service more than a thousand courtezans. (*) In the sale of the booty made by Mummius, a painting by Aristides, representing Bacchus, was sold for 600,000 sestertii. ( 2 ) There was seen in the triumph of Metellus surnamed Macedonicus, a group, the work of Lysippus, repre- senting Alexander the Great, twenty-five horsemen, and nine foot-soldiers slain at the battle of the Grani- cus ; this group, taken at Corinth, came from Dium in Macedonia. ( 3 ) Other towns of Greece were no less rich in works of art. ( 4 ) The Romans earned away from the little town of Eretria, at the time of the Macedonian war, a great number of paintings and precious statues. ( 5 ) We know, from the traveller Pausanias, how prodig- ious was the quantity of offerings brought from the most diverse countries into the sanctuary of Delphi. This town, which, by its reputation for sanctity and its solemn games, the Pythian, was the rival of Olym- pia, gathered in its temple during ages immense treas- ures; and when it was plundered by the Phocseans, they found in it gold and silver enough to coin ten thousand talents of money (about 58 millions of francs [2,320,000]). The ancient opulence of the Greeks had, nevertheless, passed into their colonies ; and, from the extremity of the Black Sea to Cyrene, numerous (') Cicero, De RepubKca, II. 4. Strabo, VIII. vi. 20. (') Strabo, VIII. vi. 23. Pliny, Natural History, XXXV. x. 36. ( 3 ) Arrian, Expedition of Alexander, I. xvi. 4. Velleius Paterculus, I. 40. Plutarch, Alexander, 16. (*) Athenaeus, VI. 272. < 5 ) Titus Livius, XXXII. 16. 124 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. establishments arose remarkable for their sumptuous- ness. VIII. Macedonia drew to herself, since the time of Alexander, the riches and resources of Macedonia. . . Asia. Dominant over a great part of Greece and Thrace, occupying Thessaly, and extend- ing her sovereignty over Epirus, this kingdom concen- trated in herself the vital strength of those cities for- merly independent, which, two centuries before, were her rivals in power and courage. Under an econom- ical administration, the public revenues rising from the royal domains, (*) from the silver mines in Mount Pangeurn, and from the taxes, were sufficient for the wants of the country. ( 2 ) In 527, Antigonus sent to Rhodes considerable succours, which furnish the meas- ure of the resources of Macedonia. ( 3 ) Towards the year 563 of Rome, Philip had, by wise measures, raised again the importance of Macedonia. He collected in his arsenals materials for equipping three armies and provisions for ten years. Under Perseus, Macedonia was no less nourishing. That prince gave Cotys, for a service of six months with 1,000 cavalry, the large sum of 200 talents. ( 4 ) At the battle of Pydna, which completed his ruin, nearly 20,000 men remained on the field, and 11,000 were made prisoners. ( 5 ) In richness of equipment, the C 1 ) Titus Livius, XLV. 18, 29. ( a ) Titos Livitis, XLII. 12. ( 3 ) "These were, in money, 100 talents (582,000 francs [23,280]), and in wheat, 100,000 artabas (52,500 hectolitres) ; and also considerable quantities of ship-building timber, tar, lead, and iron." (Polybius,V. 89.) ( 4 ) About 1,164,000 francs [46,560]. Perseus had promised him twice as much. (Titus Livius, XLII. 67.) () Titus Livius, XLIV. 42. MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. 125 Macedonian troops far surpassed other armies. The Leucaspidan phalanx was dressed in scarlet, and car- ried gilt armour ; the Chalcaspidan phalanx had shields of the finest brass. ( J ) The prodigious splen- dour of the court of Perseus and that of his favourites reveal still more the degree of opulence at which Macedonia had arrived. All exhibited in their dresses and in their feasts a pomp equal to that of kings. ( 2 ) Among the booty made by Paulus ^Emilius were paintings, statues, rich tapestries, vases of gold, sil- ver, bronze, and ivory, which were so many master- pieces. ( 3 ) His triumph was unequalled by any other. ( 4 ) Valerius of Antium estimates at more than 120 millions of sestertii (about 30 millions of francs [1,200,000]) the gold and silver exhibited on this occasion. ( 5 ) Macedonia, as we see, had absorbed the ancient riches of Greece. Thrace, long barbarous, be- gan also to rise out of the condition of inferiority in which it had so long languished. Numerous Greek ( 1 ) Titus Livius, XLIV. 41. ( 2 ) Titus Livius, XLV. 32. C) Titus Livius, XLV. 33. ( 4 ) It lasted three days : the first was hardly sufficient to pass in review the 250 chariots laden with statues and paintings ; the second day, it was the turn of the arms, placed on cars, which were followed by 3,000 warriors carrying 750 urns full of money ; each, borne by four men, contained three talents (the whole amounting to more than 13 millions of francs [520,000]). After them came those who carried vessels of silver, chased and wrought. On the third day appeared in the triumphal procession those who carried the gold coins, with 77 urns, each of which contained three talents (the total about 17 millions [680,000]) ; next came a consecrated cup, of the weight of ten talents, and enriched with precious stones, made by order of the Roman general. All this preceded the prisoners, Perseus and his household ; and, lastly, came the car of the triumphant general. (Plutarch, Paulus ^Emilias, 32, 33.) ( s ) Titus Livius, XLV. 40. 126 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. colonies, founded on the shores of the Pontus Euxi- nus, introduced there civilisation and prosperity ; and among these colonies, Byzantium, though often har- assed by the neighbouring barbarians, had already an importance and prosperity which presaged its fu- ture destinies. (*) Foreigners, resorting to it from all parts, had introduced a degree of licentiousness which became proverbial. ( 2 ) Its commerce was, above all, nourished by the ships of Athens, which went there to fetch the wheat of Tauris and the fish of the Eux- ine. ( 3 ) When Athens, in her decline, became a prey to anarchy, Byzantium, where arts and letters flour- ished, served as a refuge to her exiles. IX. Asia Minor comprised a great number of prov- inces, of which several became, after the dismemberment of the empire of Alex- ander, independent states. Of these, the principal formed into four groups, composing so many king- doms, namely, Pontus, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Per- gamus. We must except from them some Greek cit- ies on the coast, which kept their autonomy or were placed under the sovereignty of Rhodes. Their ex- tent and limits varied often until the time of the Ro- man conquest^ and several of them passed from one, domination to another. All these kingdoms partici- pated in different degrees in the prosperity of Mace- donia, " Asia," says Cicero, " is so rich and fertile, that the ( 1 ) Polybius, IV. 38, 44, 45. ( 2 ) Aristotle, Politics, VI. 4, 1. JElian, Various Histories, III. 1*. ( 3 ) Strabo, VII. vi. 2 ; XII. iii. 11. MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. 127 fecundity of its plains, the variety of its products, the extent of its pastures, the multiplicity of the objects of commerce exported from it, give it an incontestible superiority over all other countries of the earth. (*) The wealth of Asia Minor appears from the amount of impositions paid by it to the different Roman gen- erals. Without speaking of the spoils carried away by Scipio, in his campaign against Antiochus, and by Manlius Volso in 565, Sylla, and afterwards Lucul- lus and Pompey, each drew from this country about 20,000 talents, ( 2 ) besides an equal sum distributed by them to their soldiers : which gives the enormous total of nearly seven hundred millions of francs [or twenty-eight millions sterling], received in a period of twenty-five years. X. The most northern of the four groups named above formed a great part of the king- Kingdom of Pontus. m-i- ,i_ dom ot rontus. 1ms province, the an- cient Cappadocia Pontica, formerly a Persian satrapy, reduced to subjection by Alexander and his success- or, recovered itself after the battle of Ipsus (453). Mithridates III. enlarged his territory by adding to it Paphlagonia, and afterwards Sinope and Galatia. Pontus soon extended from Colchis on the north-east to Lesser Armenia on the south-east, and had Bi- thynia for its boundary on the west. Thus, touching upon the Caucasus, and master of the Pontus Euxi- nus, this kingdom, composed of divers peoples, pre- sented, under varied climates, a variety of different (') Cicero, Oration for the Law Manilia,\i. ( 2 ) Plutarch, Sylla, xxv. 128 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. productions. It received wines and oils from the ^Egean Sea, and wheat from the Bosphorus; it ex- ported salt fish in great quantity, (*) dolphin oil, ( 2 ) and, as produce of the interior, the wools of the Gadi- lonitis, ( 3 ) the fleeces of Ancyra, the horses of Arme- nia, Media, and Paphlagonia, ( 4 ) the iron of the Chal- ybes, a population of miners to the south of Trapezus, already celebrated in the time of Homer, and men- tioned by Xenophon. ( 5 ) There also were found mines of silver, abandoned in the time of Strabo, ( G ) but which have been re-opened in modern times. Im- portant ports on the Black Sea facilitated the expor- tation of these products. It was at Sinope that Lu- cullus found a part of the treasures which he displayed at his triumph, and which gives us a lofty idea of the kingdom of Mithridates. ( 7 ) An object of admiration at Sinope was the statue of Autolycus, one of the pro- tecting heroes of the town, the work of the statuary Sthenis. ( 8 ) Trapezus (Trebizonde), which before the time of C) Especially the fish called pelamydes, objects of research throughout Greece. (Strabo, VII. vi. 2 ; XII. iii. 11, 19.) (") Strabo, XII. iii. 19. ( 3 ) Strabo, XII. iii. 13. Gadilonitis extended to the south-west of Amisus (Samsoun). (*) Polybius, V. 44, 55. Ezekiel xxvii. 13, 14. ( 5 ) Xenophon, Retreat of the Ten Thousand, V. v. 34. Homer, Iliad, II. 857. () Strabo, XII. iii. 19. ( 7 ) There passed in the procession a statue of gold of the King of Pontus, six feet high, with his shield set with precious stones, twenty stands covered with vases of silver, thirty-two others full of vases of gold, with arms of the same metal, and with gold coinage ; these stands were carried by men followed by eight mules loaded with golden beds, and after whom came fifty-six others car- rying ingots of silver, and a hundred and seven carrying all the silver money, amounting to 2,700,000 drachmas (2,619,000 francs [104,760]). (Plutarch, Lucullus, xxxvii.) ( s ) Plutarch, Lucitllus, xxiii. MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. 129 Mithridates the Great preserved a sort of autonomy under the kings of Pontus, had an extensive com- merce ; which was the case also with another Greek colony, Amisus ($amsoun), ( a ) regarded in the time of Lucullus as one of the most nourishing and richest towns in the country. ( 2 ) In the interior, Amasia, which became afterwards one of the great fortresses of Asia Minor, and the metropolis of Pontus, had al- ready probably, at the time of the Punic wars, a cer- tain renown. Cabira, called afterwards Sebaste, and then Neocsesarea, the central point of the resistance of Mithridates the Great to Lucullus, owed its ancient celebrity to its magnificent Temple of the Moon. From the country of Cabira, there was, according to the statement of Lucullus, ( 3 ) only the distance of a few days' march into Armenia, a country the riches of which may be estimated by the treasures gathered by Tigranes. ( 4 ) We can hence understand how Mithridates the Great Avas able, two centuries later, to oppose the Ro- mans with considerable armies and fleets. He pos- sessed in the Black Sea 400 ships, ( 5 ) and his army amounted to 250,000 men and 40,000 horse. ( 6 ) He received, it is true, succours from Armenia and Scyth- ia, from the Palus Mseotis, and even from Thrace. (') Strabo, XII. iii. 13, 14. ( 3 ) Appian, War against Mithridates, Ixxviii. ( 3 ) Plutarch, Lucullus, xiv. (*) See what is reported by Plutarch {Lucullus, xxix.) of the riches and ob- jects of art of every species with which Tigranocerta was crammed. (') Appian, Wars of Mithridates, xiii. p. 658 ; xv. p. 662 ; xvii. p. 664. ( 6 ) Appian, Wars of Mithridates, xvii. 664. Lesser Armenia furnished 1,000 horsemen. Mithridates had a hundred and thirty chariots armed with scythes. c>* I 130 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. XI. Bithynia, a province of Asia Minor, comprised between the Propontis, the Sangarius, and Paphlagonia, formed a kingdom, which, at the beginning of the sixth century of Rome, was adjacent to Pontus, and comprised several parts of the provinces contiguous to Mysia and Phrygia. In it were found several towns, the commerce of which rivalled that of the maritime towns of Pontus, and es- pecially Nicsea and Nicomedia. This last, founded in 475 by Nicomedes L,took a rapid extension. ( J ) Her- aclea Pontica, a Milesian colony situated between the Sangarius and the Parthenius, preserved its extensive commerce, and an independence which Mithridates the Great himself could not entirely destroy ; it possessed a vast port, safe and skilfully disposed, which shelter- ed a numerous fleet. ( 2 ) The power of the Bithyn- ians was not insignificant, since they sent into the field, in the war of Nicomedes against Mithridates, 56,000 men. ( 3 ) If the traffic was considerable on the coasts of Bithynia, thanks to the Greek colonies, the interior was not less prosperous by its agriculture, and Bithynia was still, in the time of Strabo, renown- ed for its herds." ( 4 ) One of the provinces of Bithynia fell into the hands of the Gauls (A.U.C. 478). Three peoples of Celtic origin shared it, and exercised in it a sort of feudal dominion. It was called Galatia from the name of the conquerors. Its places of commerce were : (*) Strabo, XII. iv. 2. Stephanus Byzantinus, under the word NMCO/ITJ- cttov. Pliny, NaturalHistory, V. xxxii. 149. () Strabo, XII. iii. 6. ( 3 ) Appian, Wars of Mithridates, xvii. () Strabo, XII. v. 7. MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. Ancyra, the point of arrival of the caravans coming from. Asia, and Pessinus, one of the chief seats of the old Phrygian worship, where pilgrims repaired in great number to adore Cybele. (*) The population of Galatia was certainly rather considerable, since in the famous campaign of Cneius Manlius Volso, ( 2 ) in 565, the Galatians lost 40,000 men. The two tribes united of the Tectosagi and Trocmi raised at that pe- riod, in spite of many defeats, an army of 50,000 foot and 10,000 horse. ( 3 ) XII. To the east of Galatia, Cappadocia comprised between the Halys and Armenia, dis- tant from the sea, and crossed by nu- merous chains of mountains, formed a kingdom which escaped the conquests of Alexander, and which, a few years after his death, opposed Perdiccas with an army of 30,000 footmen and 15,000 horsemen. (*) In the time of Strabo, wheat and cattle formed the riches of this country. ( 5 ) In 566, King Ariarathes paid 600 talents for the alliance of the Romans. ( 6 ) Mazaca (afterwards Ccesarea), capital of Cappadocia, a town of an entirely Asiatic origin, had been, from a very early period, renowned for its pastures. ( 7 ) (*) Strabo (XII. v. 3) tells us that Pessinus was the greatest mart of the province. ( 2 ) Titus Livius, XXXVIII. 23. ( 3 ) Titus Livius, XXXVIII. 26. (*) Diodorus Siculus, XVIII. 16. (*) Strabo, XII. ii. 10. ( 6 ) About 3,500, 000 francs [140, 000]. (Titus Livius, XXXVIII. 37.) See Appian, Wars of Syria, xlii. " Demetrius obtained soon afterwards a thou- sand talents (5,821,000 francs [232,840]) from Olophernes for having estab- lished him on the throne of Cappadocia." (Appian, Wart of Syria, xlvii.) O Strabo, XII. ii. 7, 8. 132 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. XIII. The western part of Asia Minor is better Kingdom of Per. tn wn - It had seen, after the battle Q f jp sug) the formation of the kingdom of Pergamus, which, thanks to the interested liberal- ity of the Romans towards Eumenes II., increased continually until the moment when it fell under their sovereignty. To this kingdom belonged Mysia, the two Phrygias, Lycaonia, and Lydia. This last prov- ince, crossed by the Pactolus, had for its capital Eph- esus, the metropolis of the Ionian confederation, at the same time the mart of the commerce of Asia Minor and one of the localities where the fine arts were cul- tivated with most distinction. This town had two ports : one penetrated into the heart of the town, while the other formed a basin in the very middle of the public market. (') The theatre of Ephesus, the largest ever built, was 660 feet in diameter, and was capable of holding 60,000 spectators. The most cel- ebrated artists, Scopas, Praxiteles, etc., worked at Eph- esus upon the great Temple of Diana. This monu- ment, the building of which lasted two hundred and twenty years, was surrounded by 128 columns, each 60 feet high, presented by so many kings. Pergamus, the capital of the kingdom, passed for one of the finest cities in A$>\&,longe clarissimumAsice Pergamum, says Pliny ; ( 2 ) the port of Elsea contained maritime arse- nals, and could arm numerous vessels. ( 3 ) The acrop- olis of Pergamus, an inaccessible citadel, defended by two torrents, was the residence of the Attalides ; these (') Falkener, Ephesus: London, 1862. ( s ) Natural History, V. xxx. 126. (*) It was thence that the fleets of the kings of Pergamus put to sea. (Titus Livius, XXXVIII. 40 ; XLIV. 28.) MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. 133 princes, zealous protectors of the sciences and arts, had founded in their capital a library of 200,000 vol- umes. (') Pergamus carried on a vast traffic ; its ce- reals were exported in great quantities to most places in Greece. ( 2 ) Cyzicus, situated on an island of the Propontis, with two closed ports forming a station for about two hundred ships, ( 3 ) rivalled the richest cit- ies of Asia. Like Adranryttiuni, it carried on a great commerce in perfumery, ( 4 ) it worked the inexhausti- ble marble-quarries of the island of Proconnesus, ( 5 ) and its commercial relations were so extensive that its gold coins were current in all the Asiatic factories. ( 6 ) The town of Abydos possessed gold mines. ( 7 ) The wheat of Assus was reputed the best in the world, and was reserved for the table of the kings of Per- sia. ( 8 ) We may estimate the population and resources of this part of Asia from the armies and fleets which the kings had at their command at the time of the con- quest of Greece by the Romans. In 555, Attains II., and, ten years later, Eumenes II., sent them numerous galleys of five ranks of oars. ( 9 ) The land forces of the kings of Pergamus were much less considera- 0) The name of Pergamus is preserved in our modem languages in the word "parchment" (pergamena), which was used to designate the skin which was prepared in that town to serve as paper, after the Ptolemies had prohibited the exportation of Egyptian papyrus. ( 2 ) Attalus I., King of Pergamus, gave to the Sicyonians 11,000 medimni of wheat. (Titus Livius, XXXII. 40.) Eumenius II. lent 80,000 to the Rhodi- ans. (Polybius, XXXI. xvii. 2.) ( 3 ) Strabo, XII. viii. 11. (*) Athenseus, XV. xxxviii. 513, ed. Schweighaeuser. ( 5 ) The Sea of Marmora took its name from these quarries of marble. ( 6 ) KvticT]voi orarj/pte, whence the word sequins. ( 7 ) Strabo, XIII. i. 23. (") Strabo, XV. iii. 22. () Titus Livius, XXXII., 16 ; XXXVI. 43. 134: HISTORY OF JULIUS OESAR. ble. (*) Their direct authority did not extend over a great territory, yet they had many tributary towns; hence their great wealth and small army. The Ro- mans drew from this country, now nearly barren and unpeopled, immense contributions both in gold and wheat. ( 2 ) The magnificence of the triumph of Man- lius and the reflections of Livy, compared with the testimony of Herodotus, reveal all the splendour of the kingdom of Pergamus. It was after the war against Antiochus and the expedition of Manlius that extravagance began to display itself at Rome. ( 3 ) Soldiers and generals enriched themselves prodigious- ly in Asia. ( 4 ) The ancient colonies of Ionia and ^Eolis, such as Clazoinenae, Colophon, and many others, which were dependent for the most part on the kingdom of Pergamus, were fallen from their ancient grandeur. Smyrna, rebuilt by Alexander, was still an object of admiration for the beauty of its monuments. The exportation of wines, as celebrated on the coast of Ionia as in the neighbouring islands, formed alone an important support of the commerce of the ports of the JEgean Sea. O Titus Livius, XXXVII. 8. ( 2 ) The petty king Moagetes, who reigned at Cibyra, in Phiygia, gave a hundred talents and 10,000 medimni of corn (Polybius, XXII. 17. Titus Liv- ius, XXXVIII. 14 and 15) ; Termessus, fifty talents ; Aspendus, Sagalassus, and all the cities of Pamphylia, paid the same (Polybius, XXII. 18 and 19); and the towns of this part of Asia contributed, at the first summons of the Roman general, for about 600 talents (3,500,000 francs [140,000]); they also deliv- ered to him about 60,000 medimni of corn. ( 3 ) Titus Livius, XXXIX. 6. (*) Manlius, although he had been despoiled on his way home of a part of his immense booty by the mountaineers of Thrace, displayed, at his triumph, crowns of gold to the weight of 212 pounds, 220,000 pounds of silver, 2,103 MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. 135 The treasures of the temple of Samothrace were so considerable, that we are induced to mention here a circumstance relating to this little island, though dis- tant from Asia, and near the coast of Thrace : Sylla's soldiers took in the sanctuary the Cabiri, an orna- ment of the value of 1,000 talents (5,820,000 francs [232,800]). Q XIV. On the southern coast of Asia Minor, some cam, Lycia, and towns still sustained the rank they had attained one or two centuries before. The capital of Caria was Halicarnassus, a very strong town, defended by two citadels, ( 2 ) and celebrated for one of the finest works of Greek art, the Mausoleum. In spite of the extraordinary fertility of the country, the Carians were accustomed, like the people of Crete, to engage as mercenaries in the Greek armies. ( 3 ) On their territory stood the Ionian town of Miletus, with its four ports. ( 4 ) The Milesians alone had civilised the shores of the Black Sea by the foundation of about eighty colonies. ( 5 ) In turn independent, or placed under foreign do- minion, Lycia, a province comprised between Caria and Cilicia, possessed some rich commercial towns. One especially, renowned for its ancient oracle of Apollo, no less celebrated than that of Delphi, was remarkable for its spacious port ; ( 6 ) this was Patara, pounds of gold, more than 127,000 Attic tetradrachms, 250,000 cistophori, and 16,320 gold coins of Philip. (Titus Livius, XXXIX. 7.) ( l ) Appian, Wars of Mithridates, Ixiii. ( 5 ) Arrian, Campaigns of Alexander, I. xx. 3. Diodorus, XVII. 23. ( 3 ) Strabo, XIV. ii. 565. () Strabo, XIV. i. 6. (') Pliny, Natural History, V. 31. () Strabo, XIV. iii. 6. 136 HISTORY OF JULIUS (LESAR. which was large enough to contain the whole fleet of Antiochus, burnt by Fabius in 565. (*) Xanthus, the largest town of the province, to which place ships as- cended, only lost its importance after having been pil- laged by Brutus. ( 2 ) Its riches had at an earlier pe- riod drawn upon it the same fate from the Persians. ( 3 ) Under the Roman dominion, Lycia beheld its popu- lation decline gradually; and of the seventy towns which it had possessed, no more than thirty-six re- mained in the eighth century of Rome. ( 4 ) More to the east, the coasts of Cilicia were less fa- voured; subjugated in turn by the Macedonians, Egyptians, and Syrians, they had become receptacles of pirates, who were encouraged by the kings of Egypt in their hostility to the Seleucidse. ( 5 ) From the heights of the mountains which cross a part of the province, robbers descended to plunder the fertile plains situated on the eastern side (Cilicia Campcs- tris). ( 6 ) Still, the part watered by the Cydnus and the Pyramus was more prosperous, owing to the man- ufacture of coarse linen and to the export of saffron. There stood ancient Tarsus, formerly the residence of a satrap, the commerce of which had sprung up along with that of Tyre ; ( 7 ) and Soli, on which Alexander levied an imposition of a hundred talents as a punish- ment for its fidelity to the Persians, ( 8 ) and which, by (') Titus Livius, XXXVIII. 39. ( 3 ) Scylax, Periplus, 39, ed. Hudson. Dio Cassius, XL VII. 34. ( 3 ) Herodotus, I. 176. (*) Pliny, Natural History, V. 28. ( 5 ) Strabo, XIV. v. 2. ( 6 ) Strabo, XIV. v. 2. ( 7 ) Tarsus had still naval arsenals in the time of Strabo (XIV. v. 12 et seg.). ( 8 ) Arrian, Anabasis, II. fi. MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. 137 its maritime position, excited the envy of the Rho- dians. (*) These towns and other ports entered, after the battle ' of Ipsus, into the great commercial move- ment of which the provinces of Syria became the seat. XV. By the foundation of the empire of the Seleu- cidae, Greek civilisation was carried into the interior of Asia, where the immobili- ty of Eastern society was succeeded by the activity of Western life. Greek letters and arts flourished from the Sea of Phoenicia to the banks of the Euphrates. Numerous towns were built in Syria and Assyria, with all the richness and elegance of the edifices of Greece ; ( 2 ) some were almost in ruins in the time of Pliny. ( 3 ) Seleucia, founded by Seleucus Nicator, at the mouth of the Orontes, and which received, with five other towns built by the same monarch, the name of the head of the Graeco - Syrian dynasty, became a greatly frequented port. Antioch, built on the same river, rivalled the finest towns of Egypt and Greece by the number of its edifices, the extent of its places, and the beauty of its temples and statues. ( 4 ) Its walls, built by the architect Xenseos, passed for a won- der, and in the Middle Ages their ruins excited the 0) Polybius, XXII. 7. ( 2 ) Seleucus founded sixteen towns of the name of Antiochia, five of the name of Laodicea, nine of the name of Seleucia, three of the name of Apamea, one. of the name of Stratonicea, and a great number of others which equally received Greek names. (Appian, Wars of Syria, Ivii. 622.) Pliny (Natural History, VI. xxvi. 117) informs us that it was the Seleucides who collected into towns the inhabitants of Babylonia, who before only inhabited villages (i-ici), and had no other cities than Nineveh and Babylon. ( 3 ) Pliny (Natural History, VI. 26, 1 19) mentions one of these towns which was 70 stadia in circuit, and in his time was reduced to a mere fortress. (*) Strabo, XVI. ii. 5. Pausanias, VI. ii. 7. 138 HISTORY OF JULIUS O^SAR. admiration of travellers. (') Antioch consisted of four quarters, having each its own enclosure ; ( 2 ) and the common enclosure which surrounded them all appears to have embraced an extent of six leagues in circum- ference. Not far from the town was the delightful abode of Daphne, where the wood, consecrated to Apollo and Diana, was an object of public venera- tion, and the place where sumptuous festivals were celebrated. ( 3 ) Apamea was renowned for its pas- tures. Seleucus had formed there a stud of 30,000 mares, 300 stallions, and 500 elephants. ( 4 ) The Tem- ple of the Sun at Heliopolis (now Baalbek) was the most colossal work of architecture that had ever ex- isted. ( 5 ) The power of the empire of the Seleucidse went on increasing until the time when the Romans seized upon it. Extending from the Mediterranean to the Oxus and Caucasus, this empire was composed of nearly all the provinces of the ancient kingdom of the Persians, and included peoples of different ori- gins. ( 6 ) Media was fertile, and its capital, Ecbatana, which Polybius represents as excelling in riches and the incredible luxury of its palaces the other cities of Asia, had not yet been despoiled by Antiochus III. ; ( 7 ) Babylonia, once the seat of a powerful em- ( l ) John Malalas, Chronicle, VIIL 200 and 202, ed. Dindorf. () Strabo, XVI. ii. 4. () Strabo, XVI. ii. 6. () Strabo, XVI. ii. 10. (*) It was raised on a terrace a thousand feet long by three hundred feet broad, and was built with stones 70 feet long. ( 6 ) The empire of Seleucus comprised seventy-two satrapies. (Appian, Wars of Syria, Ixii. 630.) ( 7 ) Polybius, X. 27. Ecbatana paid to Antiochus III. a tribute of 4,000 MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. 139 pire, and Phoenicia, long the most commercial country in the world, made part of Syria, and touched upon the frontiers of the Parthians. Caravans, following a route which has remained the same during many cen- turies, placed Syria in communication with Arabia, ( J ) whence came ebony, ivory, perfumes, resins, and spices ; the Syrian ports were the intermediate marts for the merchants who proceeded as far as India, where Se- leucus I. went to conclude a treaty with Sandrocottus. The merchandise of this country ascended the Eu- phrates as far as Thapsacus, and thence it was ex- ported to all the provinces. ( 2 ) Communications so distant and multiplied explain the prosperity of the empire of the Seleucidse. Babylonia competed with Phrygia in embroidered tissues ; purple and the tis- sues of Tyre, the glass, goldsmiths' work, and dyes of Sidon, were exported far. Commerce had penetrated to the extremities of Asia. Silk stuffs were sent from the frontiers of China to Caspiae Portse, and thence conveyed by caravans at once towards the Tyrian Sea, Mesopotamia, and Pontus. ( 3 ) Subsequently, the invasion of the Parthians, by intercepting the routes, prevented the Greeks from penetrating into the heart of Asia. Hence Seleucus Nicator formed the project of opening a way of direct communication between Greece and Bactriana, by constructing a canal from alents (Attic talents=23,284,000 francs [931,360]), the produce of the cast- ng of silver tiles which roofed one of its temples. Alexander the Great had ilready carried away those of the roof of the palace of the kings. ( l ) The country of Gerra, among the Arabians, paid 500 talents to Anti- >chus (Attic talents=2,910,500 francs [116,420]). (Polybius, XIII. 9.) There was formerly a great quantity of gold in Arabia. (Job xxviii. 1, 2. )iodorus Siculus, II. 50.) ( 3 ) Strabo, XVI. iii. 3. ( s ) Strabo, XI. ii. 426 et scq. 140 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea. ( J ) Mines of pre- cious metals were rather rare in Syria ; but there was abundance of gold and silver, introduced by the Phoe- nicians, or imported from Arabia or Central Asia. We may judge of the abundance of money possessed by Seleucia, on the Tigris, by the amount of the contribu- tion which was extorted from it by Antiochus III. (a thousand talents). ( 2 ) The sums which the Syrian monarchs engaged to pay to the Romans were im- mense. ( 3 ) The soil gave produce equal in import- ance with that of industry. ( 4 ) Susiana, one of the provinces of Persia which had fallen under the do- minion of the Seleucidse, had so great a reputation for its corn, that Egypt alone could compete with it. ( 5 ) Ccele-Syria was, like the north of Mesopotamia, in re- pute for its cattle. ( 6 ) Palestine furnished abundance C) Pliny, Natural History, VI. 11. ( 2 ) Polybius, V. 54. If, as is probable, Babylonian talents are intended, this would make about 7,426,000 francs [297,040]. Seleucia, on the Tigris, was very populous. Pliny (Natural History, VI. 26) estimates the number of its inhabitants at 600,000. Strabo (XVI. ii. 5) tells us that Seleucia was even greater than Antioch. This town, which had succeeded Babylon, appears to have inherited a part of its population. ( 3 ) In 565, Antiochus III. gives 15,000 talents (Euboic talents =87,315,000 francs [3,492,600]). (Polybius, XXI. 14. Titus Livius, XXXVIII. 37.) In the treaty of the following year, the Romans stipulated for a tribute of 12,000 Attic talents of the purest gold, payable in twelve years, each talent of 80 pounds Roman (69,852,000 francs [2, 794,080]). (Polybius, XXII. 26, 19.) In addition to this, Eumenes was to receive 359 talents (2,089,739 francs [83,589]), payable in five years (Polybius, XXII. 26, 20). Titus Livius (XXXVIII. 38) says only 350 talents. ( 4 ) The father of Antiochus, Seleucus Callinicus, sent to the Rhodians 200,000 mcdimni of wheat (104,000 hectolitres). (Polybius, V. 89.) In 556, Antiochus gave 540,000 measures of wheat to the Romans. (Polybius, XXII. 26, 19.) ( 5 ) According to Strabo (XV. 3), wheat and barley produced there a hund- redfold, and even twice as much, which is hardly probable. ( c ) Strabo, XVI. 2. MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. of wheat, oil, and wine. The condition of Syria was still so prosperous in the seventh century of Rome, that the philosopher Posidonius represents its inhab- itants as indulging in continual festivals, and dividing their time between the labours of the field, banquets, and the exercises of the gymnasium. ( J ) The festi- vals of Antiochus IV., in the town of Daphne, ( 2 ) give a notion of the extravagance displayed by the gran- dees of that country. The military forces assembled at different epochs by the kings of Syria enable us to estimate the pop- ulation of their empire. In 537, at the battle of Raphia, Antiochus had under his command 68,000 men ; ( 3 ) in 564, at Magnesia, 62,000 infantry, and more than 12,000 horsemen. (*) These armies, it is true, comprised auxiliaries of different nations. The Jews of the district of Carmel alone could raise 40,000 men. ( 5 ) The fleet was no less imposing. Phoenicia counted numerous ports and well-stored arsenals; such were Aradus (Ituacl), Berytus (Beyrouf), Tyre (Sour). This latter town raised itself gradually from its de- cline. It was the same with Sidon (Sdide), which Antiochus III., in his war with Ptolemy, did not ven- ture to attack on account of its soldiers, its stores, (') Athenaeus, XII. 35, p. 460, ed. Schweighawser. ( 3 ) Polybius, XXXI. 3. There were seen in these festivals a thousand slaves carrying silver vases, the least of which weighed 1,000 drachmas; a. thousand slaves carrying golden vases and a profusion of plate of extraordinary richness. Antiochus received every day at his table a crowd of guests whom he allowed to carry away with them in chariots innumerable provisions of all sorts. (Athenoeus, V. 46, p. 311, ed. Schweighaeuser.) ( 3 ) Polybius, V. 79. () Titus Livius, XXXVII. 37. ( 5 ) Strabo, XVI. 2. 142 HISTORY OF JULIUS CvESAR. and its population. (*) Moreover, the greater part of the Phoenician towns enjoyed, under the Seleucidae, a certain autonomy favourable to their industry. In Syria, Seleucia, which Antiochus the Great recovered from the Egyptians, had become the first port in the kingdom on the Mediterranean. ( 2 ) Laodicea carried on an active commerce with Alexandria. ( 3 ) Masters of the coasts of Cilicia and Pamphylia, the kings of Syria obtained from them great quantities of timber for ship-building, which was floated down the rivers from the mountains. (*) Thus uniting their vessels with those of the Phoenicians, the Seleucidae launched upon the Mediterranean considerable armies. ( 5 ) ~ Distant commerce also employed numerous mer- chant vessels ; the Mediterranean, like the Euphrates, was fuiTowed by barques which brought or carried merchandise of every description. Vessels sailing on the Erythraean Sea were in communication, by means of canals, with the shores of the Mediterranean. The great trade of Phoenicia with Spain and the West had ceased, but the navigation of the Euphrates and the Tigris replaced it for the transport of products, ( l ) Polybius, V. 70. (') Titus Livius, XXXIII. 41. Polybius, V. 59. Strabo, XVI. 2. ( 3 ) Strabo, XVI. 2. () Strabo, XIV. 5. ( 5 ) In 558, Antiochus sent to sea a hundred covered vessels and two hundred light ships. (Titus Livius, XXXIII. 19.) It is the greatest Syrian fleet men- tioned in these wars. At the battle of Myonnesus, the fleet commanded by Polyxenus was composed of ninety decked ships (574). (Appian, Wars of Syr- ia, 27.) In 563, before the final struggle against the Romans, that prince had forty decked vessels, sixty without decks, and two hundred transport ships. (Titus Livius, XXXV. 43.) Finally, the next year, a little before the battle of Magnesia, Antiochus possessed, not including the Phoenician fleet, a hundred vessels of moderate size, of which seventy had decks. (Titus Livius, XXXVI. 43 ; XXXVII. 8.) This navy was destroyed by the Romans. MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. 143 whether foreign or fabricated in Syria itself, and sent into Asia Minor, Greece, or Egypt. The empire of the Seleucidse offered the spectacle of the ancient civ- ilisation and luxury of Nineveh and Babylon, trans- formed by the genius of Greece. XVI. Egypt, which Herodotus calls a present from the Nile, did not equal in surface a quar- ter of the empire of the Seleucidse, but it formed a power much more compact. Its civilisation reached back more than three thousand years. The sciences and arts already flourished there, when Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy were still in a state of bar- barism. The fertility of the valley of the Nile had permitted a numerous population to develop itself there to such a point, that under Amasis II., contem- porary with Servius Tullius, twenty thousand cities were reckoned in it. (') The skilful administration of the first of the Lagides increased considerably the resources of the country. Under Ptolemy II., the an- nual revenues amounted to 14,800 talents (86,150,800 francs [3,446,032]), and a million and a half of ar- tabi ( 2 ) of Avheat. ( 3 ) Besides the Egyptian revenues, the taxes levied in the foreign possessions reached the amount of about 10,000 talents a year. Coele-Syria, Phoenicia, and Judea, with the province of Samaria, yielded annually to Ptolemy Euergetes 8,000 talents (46 millions and a half [1,860,000]). ( 4 ) A single (') Herodotus, II. 177. Diodorus Siculus,!. 31. ( 3 ) A measure great enough to make thirty loaves. (Franz, Corpus In- script. GrcRcarum, III. 303. Poly bi us, V. 79.) (') Bockh, Staatshaushaltung der Alhener, I. xiv. 15. ( 4 ) Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, XII. 4. 14A HISTORY OF JULIUS CLESA1J. feast cost Philadelphia 2,240 talents (more than 13 millions [more than half a million sterling]). (*) The sums accumulated in the treasury amounted to the sum, perhaps exaggerated, of 740,000 talents (about 4 milliards 300 millions of francs [172 millions ster- ling]). ( 2 ) In 5 2 7, Ptolemy Euergetes was able, with- out diminishing his resources too much, to send to the Rhodians 3,300 talents of silver, a thousand talents of copper, and ten millions of measures of wheat. ( 3 ) The precious metals abounded in the empire of the Pharaohs, as is attested by the traces of mining oper- ations now exhausted, and by the multitude of ob- jects in gold contained in their tombs. Masters for some time of the Libanus, the kings of Egypt obtained from it timber for ship-building. These riches had accumulated especially at Alexandria, which became, after Carthage, towards the commencement of the seventh century of Rome, the first commercial city in the world. ( 4 ) It was fifteen miles in circumference, had three spacious and commodious ports, which al- (') Athenaus, V. p. 203. ( 2 ) Appian (Preface, 10). We may, nevertheless, judge from the follow- ing data of the enormity of the sums accumulated in the treasuries of the kings of Persia. Cyrus had gained, by the conquest of Asia, 34,000 pounds weight of gold coined", and 500,000 of silver. (Pliny, XXXIII. 15.) Under Darius, son of Hystaspes, 7,600 Babylonian talents of silver (the Babylonian talent = 7,426 francs [297]) were poured annually into the royal treasury, besides 140 talents devoted to the pay of the Cilician cavalry, and 360 talents of gold (14,680 talents of silver), paid by the Indies. (Herodotus, III. 94.) This king had thus an annual revenue of 14,560 talents (108 millions of francs [4,320,000]). Darius carried with him in campaign two hundred camels loaded with gold and precious objects. (Demosthenes, On the Synimories, p. 185, xv. p. 622, ed. Muller.) Thus, according to Strabo, Alexander the Great found in the four great treasuries of that king (at Susa, Persis, Pasargades, and Persepolis) 180,000 talents (about 1,337 millions of francs [53,480,000]). (*) Polybius, V. 89. () Strabo, XVII. 1. MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. 145 lowed the largest ships to anchor along the quay. ( : ) There arrived the merchandises of India, Arabia, Ethi- opia, and of the coast of Africa ; some brought on the backs of camels, from Myos Hormos (to the north of Cosseiir), and then transported down the Nile ; others came by canals from the bottom of the Gulf of Suez, or brought from the port of Berenice, on the Red Sea. ( 2 ) The occupation of this sea by the Egyptians had put a stop to the piracies of the Arabs, ( 3 ) and led to the establishment of numerous factories. In- dia furnished spices, muslins, and dyes.; Ethiopia, gold, ivory, and ebony ; Arabia, perfumes. ( 4 ) All these products were exchanged against those which came from the Pontus Euxinus and the Western Sea. The native manufacture of printed and embroidered tis- sues, and that of glass, assumed under the Ptolemies a new development. The objects exhumed from the tombs of this period, the paintings with which they are decorated, the allusions contained in the hiero- glyphic texts and Greek papyrus, prove that the most varied descriptions of industry were exercised in the kingdom of the Pharaohs, and had attained a high degree of perfection. The excellence of the products and the delicacy of the work prove the in- telligence of the workmen. Under Ptolemy II., the army was composed of 200,000 footmen, 40,000 cav- alry, 300 elephants, and 200 chariots; the arsenals were capable of furnishing arms for 300,000 men.( 5 ) ( l ) Strabo, XVII. 1. (') Strabo, XVI. 4 ; XVII. ( 3 ) Strabo, XVII. 1. ( 4 ) Diodorus Siculus, III. 43. C & ) Appian, Preface, 10. In 537, at Rapliia, the Egyptian array amounted 7 K 146 HISTORY OF JULIUS CLESAK. The Egyptian fleet, properly so called, consisted of a hundred and twelve vessels of the first class (from five to thirty ranges of oars), and two hundred and twenty-four of the second class, together with light craft ; the king had, besides these, more than four thousand ships in the ports placed in subjection to him. (*) It was especially after Alexander that the Egyptian navy "became greatly extended. XVII. Separating Egypt from the possessions of Carthage, Cyrenaica (the regency of Trip- oli), formerly colonised by the Greeks and independent, had fallen into the hands of the first of the Ptolemies. It possessed commercial and rich towns, and fertile plains; its cultivation extended even into the mountains ; ( 2 ) wine, oil, dates, saffron and different plants, such as the silphiuni (laserpiti- , ( 3 ) were the object of considerable traffic. ( 4 ) to 70,000 foot, 5,000 cavalry, and 73 elephants. (Polybius, V. 79 ; see also V. 65.) Polybius, who gives us these details, adds that the pay of the officers was one mina (97 francs [3 17s. Id.'}} a day. (XIII. ii.) (') Theocritus, Idylls, XVII. lines 90-102. Athenoeus (V. 36, p. 284) and Appian, Preface, 10, give the details of this fleet. Ptolemy IV. Philopator went so far as to construct a ship of forty ranges of rowers, which was 280 cubits long and 30 broad. (Athenasus, V. 37, p. 285.) ( J ) Herodotus, IV. 199. The plateau of Barca, now desert, was then culti- vated and well watered. ( 3 ) The most important object of commerce of the Cyrenaica was the stiphi- um, a plant the root of which sold for its weight in silver. A kind of milky gum was extracted from it, which served as a panacea with the apothecaries and as a seasoning in the kitchen. When, in 658, Cyrenaica was incorporated with the Roman Republic, the province paid an annual tribute in silphium. Thirty pounds of this juice, brought to Rome in 667, were regarded as a mira- cle ; and when Cresar, at the beginning of the civil war, seized upon the pub- lic treasury, he found in the treasury chest 1,500 pounds of silphium locked up with the gold and silver. (Pliny, XIX. 3.) (*) Diodorus Siculus, III. 49. Herodotus, IV. 169. Atheriasus, XV. 22, p. MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. 147 The horses of Cyrenaica, which had all the lightness of the Arabian horses, were objects of research even in Greece, ( l ) and the natives of Gyrene could make no more handsome present to Alexander than to send him three hundred of their coursers. ( 2 ) Neverthe- less, political revolutions had already struck at the ancient prosperity of the country, ( 3 ) which previous- ly formed, by its navigation, its commerce, and its arts, probably the finest of the colonies founded by the Greeks. XVIII. The numerous islands of the Mediterrane- an enjoyed equal prosperity. Cyprus, colonised by the Phoenicians, and subse- quently by the Greeks, passing afterwards under the dominion of the Egyptians, had a population which preserved, from its native country, the love of com- merce and distant voyages. Almost all its towns Avere situated on the sea-coast, and furnished with excellent ports. Ptolemy Soter maintained in it an army of 30,000 Egyptians. ( 4 ) No country was richer in timber. Its fertility passed for being superior to that of Egypt. ( 5 ) To its agricultural produce were added precious stones, mines of copper worked from an early period, ( 6 ) and so rich, that this metal took 487; 38, p. 514. Strabo, XVII. iii. 712. Pliny, Natural History, XVI. 33; XIX, 3. 0} Pindar, Pythian Odes, IV. 2. Athenseus, III. 58, p. 392. ( J ) Diodorus Siculus, XVII. 49. ( 3 ) Aristotle, Politics, VII. 2, 10. ( 4 ) Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, XIII. 12, 2, 3. ( 5 ) JElian, History of Animals, V. Ivi. Eustathius, Comment, on Dionysius Periegetes, 508, 1 98, edit. Bernhardy. C 6 ) Strabo, XIV. 6. Pliny, Natural History, XXXIV. 2. Crete. 148 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. its name from the island itself (Cuprum^). In Cyprus were seen numerous sanctuaries, and especially the temple of Venus at Paphos, which contained a hund- red altars. ( l ) XIX. Crete, peopled by different races, had attained even in the heroic age a great celebrity ; Homer sang its hundred cities ; but dur- ing several centuries it had been on the decline. Without commerce, without a regular navy, without agriculture, it possessed little else than its fruits and woods, and the sterility which characterises it now had already commenced. Nevertheless, there is eveiy reason to believe that at' the time of the Roman con- quest, the island was still well peopled. ( 2 ) Devoted to piracy, ( 3 ) and reduced to sell their services, the Cretans, celebrated as archers, fought as mercenaries in the armies of Syria, Macedonia, and Egypt. ( 4 ) XX. If Crete was in decline, Rhodes, on the con- trary, was extending its commerce, which Rhodes. rJV took gradually the place of that of the maritime towns of Ionia and Caria. Already inhab- ited, in the time of Homer, by a numerous popula- tion, and containing three important towns, Lindos, lalysus, and Camirus, ( 5 ) the isle was, in the fifth cen- (') Virgil, JEneid, I. 415. Statius, TJiebais,V. 61. (*) Strabo, X. 4. ( 3 ) Polybius, XIII. 8. (*) Cretan mercenaries are found in the service of Flamininus in 557 (Titus Livius, XXXIII. 3), in that of Antiochus in 564 (Titus Livius, XXXVII. 40), in that of Perseus in 583 (Titus Livius, XLII. 51), and in the service of Rome in 633. ( 5 ) Iliad, II. 656. MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. 149 tury of Rome, the first maritime power after Car- thage. The town of Rhodes, built during the war of the Peloponnesus (346), had, like the Punic city, two ports, one for merchant vessels, the other for ships of war. The right of anchorage produced a revenue of a million of drachmas a year. (*) The Rhodians had founded colonies on different points of the Mediterra- nean shore, ( 2 ) and entertained friendly relations with a great number of towns from which they received more than once succours and presents. ( 3 ) They pos- sessed upon the neighbouring Asiatic continent trib- utary towns, such as Caunus and Stratonicea, which paid them 120 talents (700,000 francs [28,000]). The navigation of the Bosphorus, of which they strove to maintain the passage free, soon belonged to them almost exclusively. ( 4 ) All the maritime commerce from the Nile to the Palus Mseotis thus fell into their hands. Laden with slaves, cattle, honey, wax, and salt meats, ( 5 ) their ships went to fetch on the coast of the Cimmerian Bosphorus (Sea of Azof) the wheat then very celebrated, ( 6 ) and to carry wines and oils to the northern, coast of Asia Minor. By means of its fleets, though its land army was composed wfch&y (') Polybius, XXX. 7, year of Rome 590. ( 2 ) Strabo, XIV. 2. The town of Rhoda in Spain, establishments in the Ba- leares, Gela in Sicily, Sylaris and Palceopolis in Italy, were Rhodian colonies. ( 3 ) This happened especially at the epoch when the famous Colossus of Rhodes fell, and when the town was violently shaken by an earthquake. Hie- ro, tyrant of Syracuse, Ptolemy, king of Egypt, Antigonus Doson, king of Mac- edonia, and Seleucus, king of Syria, sent succours to the Rhodians. (Polybi- us, V. 88, 89.) (*) We see, in fact, with what care the Rhodians spared their allies on the coast of the Pontus Euxinus. (Polybius, XXVII. 6.) ( 5 ) Polybius, IV. 38. ( 6 ) Strabo, VII. 4. 150 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR of foreigners, (*) Rhodes several times made war with success. She contended with Athens, especially from 397 to 399 ; she resisted victoriously, in 450, Deme- trius Poliorcetes, and owed her safety to the respect of this prince for a magnificent painting of lalysus, the work of Protogenes. ( 2 ) During the campaigns of the Romans in Macedonia and Asia, she furnished them with considerable fleets. ( 3 ) Her naval force was maintained until the civil war which followed the death of Caesar, but was then annihilated. The celebrity of Rhodes was no less great in arts and letters than in commerce. After the reign of Alexander, it became the seat of a famous school of sculpture and painting, from which issued Protogenes and the authors of the Laocoon and the Farnese Bull. The town contained three thousand statues, ( 4 ) and a hundred and six colossi, among others the famous Statue of the Sun, one of the seven wonders of the world, a hundred and five feet high, the cost of which had been three thousand talents (17,400,000 francs [696,000]). ( 5 ) The school of rhetoric at Rhodes was -frequented by students who repaired thither from ^ri OyTitus Livius, XXXIII. 18. ( 3 ) During the siege of Rhodes, Demetrius had formed the design of deliver- ing to the flames all the public buildings, one of which contained the famous painting of lalysus, by Protogenes. The Rhodians sent a deputation to Deme- trius to ask him to spare this masterpiece. After this interview, Demetrius raised the siege, sparing thus at the same time the town and the picture. (Au- lus Gellius, XV. 31.) ( 3 ) In 555, twenty ships ; in 556, twenty vessels with decks ; in 563, twenty- five ships with decks, and thirty-six vessels. This last fleet of thirty-six ves- sels was destroyed, and yet the Rhodinns were able to send to sea again, the same year, twenty vessels. In 584 they had forty vessels. (Titus Livius, XXXI. 46; XXXII. 16; XXXVI. 45; XXXVII. 9, 11, 12; XLII. 45.) (') Pliny, XXXIV. 17. (*) Strabo, XIV. 2. MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. 151 all parts of Greece, and Caesar, as well as Cicero, went there to perfect themselves in the art of oratory. The other islands of the JEgean Sea had nearly all lost their political importance, and their commercial life was absorbed by the new states of Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Rhodes. It was not so with the Arch- ipelago of the Ionian Sea, the prosperity of which con- tinued until the moment when it fell into the power of the Romans. Corcyra, which received into its port the Roman forces, owed to its fertility and favourable position an extensive commerce. The rival of Corinth since the fourth century, she became corrupted like Byzantium and Zacynthus (Zante), which Agathar- chides, towards 640, represents as grown effeminate by excess of luxury. (*) XXI. The flourishing* condition of Sardinia arose especially from the colonies which Car- thage had planted in it. The population of this island rendered itself formidable to the Ro- mans by its spirit of independence. ( 2 ) From 541 ( 3 ) to 580, 130,000 men were slain, taken, or sold. ( 4 ) The number of these last was so considerable, that the expression Sardinians to sell (Sardi venales) be- came proverbial. ( 5 ) Sardinia, which now counts not more than 544,000 inhabitants, then possessed at least (') Athenaeus, XII. 35, p. 461. O Titus Livius, XXIII. 34. ( 3 ) Titus Livius, XXIII. 40. ( 4 ) Titus Livius, XLI. 12, 17, 28. The number of 80,000 men whom the Sardinians lost in the campaign of T. Gracchus, in 578 and 579, was given by the official inscription which was seen at Rome in the temple of the goddess Matuta. (Titus Livius, XLI. 28.) ( 5 ) Festus, p. 322, edit. O. Miiller. Titus Livius, XLT. 21. Sardinia. Corsica. 152 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. a million. Its quantity of corn, and numerous herds of cattle, made of this island the second granary of Carthage. (*) The avidity of the Romans soon ex- hausted it. Yet, in 552, the harvests were still so abundant, that there were merchants who were obliged to abandon the wheat to the sailors for the price of the freight. ( 2 ) The working of the mines and the trade in wool of a superior quality ( 3 ) occu- pied thousands of hands. XXII. Corsica was much less populous. Diodorus Siculus gives it hardly more than 30,000 inhabitants, ( 4 ) and Strabo represents them as savages, and living in the mountains. ( 5 ) According to Pliny, however, it had thirty towns. ( 6 ) Resin, wax, honey, ( 7 ) exported from factories found- ed by the Etruscans and Phocaeans on the coasts, were almost the only products of the island. XXIII. Sicily, called by the ancients the favourite abode of Ceres, owed its name to the Si- cani or Siculi, a race which had once peo- pled a part of Italy ; Phoenician colonies, and after- wards Greek colonies, had established themselves in ( l ) See Heeren, vol. IV. sect. I. chap. ii. Polybius, I. 79. Strabo, V. ii. 187. Diodorus Siculus, V. 15. Titus Livius, XXIX. 3G. (*) Titus Livius, XXX. 38. ( 3 ) Strabo, V. 2. ( 4 ) Diodorus Siculus, V. 14. The Corsicnns having revolted, in 573, had 2,000 slain. (Titus Livius, XL. 34.) In 581, they lost 7,000 men, and had more than 1,700 prisoners. (Titus Livius, XLII. 7.) ( s ) Strabo, V. 2. ( 6 ) Pliny, Natural History, III. C. (') Diodorus Siculus, V. 13. In 573, the Corsicans were taxed by tlio Ro- mans at 1.000.000 pounds of wax, and at 200,000 in 581. (Titus Livins, XL. 34; XLII. 7.) MEDITERRANEAN PROSPERITY. 153 it. Ill 371, the Greeks occupied the eastern part, about two-thirds of the island; the Carthaginians, the western part. Sicily, on account of its prodigious fertility, was, as may be supposed, coveted by both peoples; it was soon the same in regard to the Ro- mans, and, after the conquest, it became the granary of Italy. (*) The orations of Cicero against Verres show the prodigious quantities of wheat which it sent, and to what a great sum the tenths or taxes amount- ed, which procured immense profits to the farmers of the revenues. ( 2 ) The towns which, under Roman rule, declined, were possessed of considerable importance at the time of which we are speaking. The first among them, Syra- cuse, the capital of Hiero's kingdom, contained 600,000 souls ; it was composed of six quarters, comprised in a circumference of 180 stadia (36 kilometres) ; it fur- nished, when it was conquered, a booty equal to that of Carthage. ( 3 ) Other cities rivalled Syracuse in ex- tent and power, Agrigentum, in the time of the first Punic war, contained 50,000 soldiers ; ( 4 ) it was one of the principal garrisons in Sicily. ( 5 ) Panormus (Palermo), Drepana (Trapani), and Lilybaeum (Ma/r- sala), possessed arsenals, docks for ship-building, and vast ports. The roadstead of Messina was capable of holding 600 vessels. ( 6 ) Sicily is still the richest (') Cicero, Second Oration against Verres, II. ii. 74. The oxen furnished "hides, employed especially for the tents ; the sheep, an excellent wool for clothing. ( J ) Cicero, Second Oration against Verres, II. III. 70. ( 3 ) Titus Living, XXV. 31. () Polybius, I. 17, 18. ( 8 ) Polybius, IX. 27. Strabo, VI. 2. ( 6 ) See what is said by Titus Livius (XXIX. 26) and Polybins (I. 41, 43, 46). B, II. 2. 154 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. country in ancient monuments ; our admiration is ex- cited by the ruins of twenty-one temples and of eleven theatres, among others that of Taormina, which con- tained 40,000 spectators. (*) This concise description of the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, two or three hundred years be- fore our era, shows sufficiently the state of prosperity of the different peoples who inhabited them. The remembrance of such greatness inspires a very natu- ral wish, namely, that henceforth the jealousy of the great powers may no longer prevent the East from shaking off the dust of twenty centuries, and from being born again to life and civilisation ! (') See the work of the Duke of Serra di Falco, Antichita delta Sidlia. CHAPTER V. PUNIC WARS AND WARS OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA. (From 488 to 621.) I. ROME, having extended her dominion to the co iu pa ri3 onbet*een southern extremity of Italy, found her- thaee - self in face of a power which, by the force of circumstances, was to become her rival. Carthage, situated on the part of the African coast nearest to Sicily, was only separated from it by the channel of Malta, which divides the great basin of the Mediterranean in two. She had, during more than two centuries, concluded, from time to time, treaties with Rome, and, with a want of foresight of the fu- ture, congratulated the Senate every time it had gain- ed great advantages over the Etruscans or the Sam- nites. The superiority of Carthage at the beginning of the Punic wars was evident ; yet the constitution of the two cities might have led any one to foresee which in the end must be the master. A powerful aristocracy reigned in both ; but at Rome the nobles, identified continually with the people, set an example of patriotism and of all civic virtues, while at Car- thage the leading families, enriched by commerce, made effeminate by an unbridled luxury, formed a selfish and greedy caste, distinct from the rest of the 156 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. . citizens. At Rome, the sole motive of action was glory, the principal occupation war, and the first duty military service. At Carthage, everything was sacri- ficed to interest and commerce; and the defence of the fatherland was, as an insupportable burden, aban- doned to mercenaries. Hence, after a defeat, at Car- thage the army was recruited with difficulty ; at Rome it immediately recruited itself, because the populace was subject to the recruitment. If the poverty of the treasury caused the pay of the troops to be delayed, the Carthaginian soldiers mutinied, and placed the State in danger; the Romans supported privations and suffering without a murmur, out of mere love for their country. The Carthaginian religion made of the Divinity a jealous and malignant power, which required to be appeased by horrible sacrifices or honoured by shame- ful practices : hence manners depraved and cruel ; at Rome, good sense or the interest of the government moderated the brutality of paganism, and maintained in religion the sentiments of morality. (*) And, again, what a difference in their policies ! Rome had subdued, by force of arms, it is true, the people who surrounded her, but she had, so to say, obtained pardon for her victories in offering to the vanquished a greater country and a share in the rights (*) Thus the Jupiter of the Capitol and the Italic Juno, at least in their offi- cial worship, were the protectors of virtuous morals and punished the wicked, while the Phoenician Moloch and Hercules, worshipped at Carthage, granted their favours to those who made innocent blood run upon their altars. (Dio- dorus Siculus, XX. 14.) See the remarkable figures of Moloch holding a grid- iron destined for human sacrifices. (Alb. della Marmora, Sardinian Antiqui- ties, pi -23, 53, torn. ii. 2.U.) PUNIC WARS AND WARS OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA. 157 of the metropolis. Moreover, as the inhabitants of the peninsula were in general of one and the same race, she had found it easy to assimilate them to her- self. Carthage, on the contrary, had remained a for- eigner in the midst of the natives of Africa, from whom she was separated by origin, language, and manners. She had made her rule hateful to her sub- jects and to her tributaries by the mercantile spirit of her agents, and their habits of rapacity ; hence fre- quent insurrections, repressed with unexampled cruel- ty. Her distrust of her subjects had engaged her to leave all the towns on her territory open, in order that none of them might become a centre of support to a revolt. Thus two hundred towns surrendered without resistance to Agathocles immediately he ap- peared in Africa. Rome, on the contrary, surrounded her colonies with ramparts, and the walls of Placen- tia, Spoletum, Casilinum, and Nola, contributed to ar- rest the invasion of Hannibal. The town of Romulus was at that time in all the vigour of youth, while Carthage had reached that de- gree of corruption at which States are incapable of supporting either the abuses which enervate them, or the remedy by which they might be regenerated. To Rome then belonged the future. On one hand, a people of soldiers, restrained by discipline, religion, and purity of manners, animated with the love of their country, surrounded by devoted allies ; on the other, a people of merchants with dissolute manners, unruly mercenaries, and discontented subjects. / II. These two powers, of equal ambition, but so op- 158 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. st Punic War ar posite in spirit, could not long remain in presence without disputing the command of the rich basin of the Mediterranean. Sicily espe- cially was destined to excite their covetousness. The possession of that island was then shared between Hiero, tyrant of Syracuse, the Carthaginians, and the Mamertines. These last, descended from the old ad- venturers, mercenaries of Agathocles, who came from Italy in 490 and settled at Messina, proceeded to make war upon the Syracusans. They first sought the assistance of the Carthaginians, and surrendered to them the acropolis of Messina as the price of their protection ; but soon, disgusted with their too exact- ing allies, they sent to demand succour of Rome un- der the name of a common nationality, for most of them called themselves Italiots, and consequently al- lies of the Republic ; some even were or pretended to be Romans. ( a ) The Senate hesitated; but public opinion carried the day, and, in spite of the little interest inspired by the Mamertines, war was decided. A body of troops, sent without delay to Messina, expelled the Cartha- ginians. Soon after, a consular army crossed the Strait, defeated first the Syracusans and then the Car- thaginians, and effected a military settlement in the island. Thus commenced the first Punic War. Different circumstances favoured the Romans. The Carthaginians had made themselves objects of hatred to the Sicilian Greeks. The towns still independent, comparing the discipline of the legions with the ex- cesses of all kinds which had marked the progress of (') Poly bins, T. 7, 11. PUNIC WARS AND WARS OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA. 159 the mercenaries of Agathocles, Pyrrhus, and the Car- thaginian generals, received the consuls as liberators. Hiero, master of Syracuse, the principal town in Sicily, had no sooner experienced the power of the Roman armies than he foresaw the result of the struggle, and declared for the strongest. His alliance, maintained faithfully during fifty years, was of great utility to the Republic. (*) With his support, the Romans, at the end of the third year of the war, had obtained posses- sion of Agrigentum and the greater part of the towns of the interior ; but the fleets of the Carthaginians re- mained masters of the sea and of the fortresses on the coast. The Romans were deficient in ships of war. ( 2 ) They could, no doubt, procure transport vessels, or, by their allies (socii navales), a few triremes, ( 3 ) but they had none of those ships with five ranks of oars, better calculated, by their weight and velocity, to sink the ships of the enemy. An incomparable .energy sup- plied in a short time the insufficiency of the fleet : a hundred and twenty galleys were constructed after the model of a Carthaginian quinquireme which had been cast on the coast of Italy ; and soldiers were ex- (') Polybius, 1. 16. Zonaras, VIII. 1C et seq. ( 2 ) We have seen before that Rome, after the capture of Antium (Porto d'Anzo), had already a navy, but she had no galleys of three ranks or five ranks of oars. Nothing, therefore, is more probable than the relation of Ti- tus Livius, who states that the Romans took for a model a Carthaginian quin- quireme wrecked on their coast. In spite of the advanced state of science, we have not yet obtained a perfect knowledge of the construction of the ancient galleys, and, even at the present day, the problem will not be completely solved until chance furnishes us with a model. ( 3 ) The Romans employed the triremes of Tarentum, Locri. Elea, and Na- ples to cross the Strait of Messina. The use of qninqmremes was entiivly unknown in Italv. 160 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAH. ercised on land in the handling of the oar. ( ] ) At the end of two months, the crews were embarked, and the Carthaginians were defeated at Mylse (494), and three years after at Tyndaris (497). These two sea- fights deprived Carthage of the prestige of her mari- time superiority. Still the struggle continued on land without deci- sive results, when the two rivals embraced the same resolution of making a final effort for the mastery of the sea. Carthage fitted out three hundred and fifty decked vessels ; Rome, three hundred and thirty of equal force. In ^98 the two fleets met between Her- aclea Minora and the Cape of Ecnomus, and, in a mem- orable combat, in which 300,000 men ( 2 ) contended, the victory remained with the Romans. The road to Africa was open, and M. Atilius Regulus, inspired, no doubt, by the example of Agathocles, formed the de- sign of carrying the war thither. His first successes were so great, that Carthage, in her terror, and to avoid the siege with which she was threatened, was ready to renounce her possessions in Sicily. Regu- lus, relying too much on the feebleness of the resist- ance he had hitherto encountered, thought he could impose upon Carthage the hardest conditions ; but despair restored to the Africans all their energy, and Xanthippus, a Greek adventurer, but good general, placed himself at the head of the troops, defeated the consul, and almost totally destroyed his army. The Romans never desponded in their reverses ; (') Polybius,!. 20, 21. ( a ) Each vessel carried 800 rowers and 120 soldiers, or 420 men, which makes, for the Carthaginian fleet, 147,000 men, and, for the Ronuin fleet, 138,600. (Polybins, I. 2. r > and 2C.) PUNIC WARS AND WARS OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA. they carried the war again into Sicily, and recover- ed Panornms, the head-quarters of the Carthaginian army. For several years the fleets of the two coun- tries ravaged, one the coast of Africa, the other the Italian shores ; in the interior of Sicily the Romans had the advantage ; on the coast, the Carthaginians. Twice the fleets of the Republic were destroyed by tempests or by the enemy, and these disasters led the Senate on two occasions to suspend all naval warfare. The struggle remained concentrated during six years in a corner of Sicily: the Romans occupied Panor- mus ; the Carthaginians, Lilybseum and Drepana. It might have been prolonged indefinitely, if the Senate, in spite of the poverty of the treasury, had not suc- ceeded, by means of voluntary gifts, in equipping an- other fleet of two hundred quinquiremes. Lutatius, who commanded it, dispersed the enemy's ships near the ^Egates, and, master of the sea, threatened to starve the Carthaginians. They sued for peace at the very moment when a great warrior, Hamilcar, had just restored a prestige to their arms. The fact is, that the enormity of her expenses and sacrifices for the last twenty-four years had discouraged Carthage, while at Rome, patriotism, insensible to material loss- es, maintained the national energy without change. D/ O The Carthaginians, obliged to give up all their estab- lishments in Sicily, paid an indemnity of 2,200 tal- ents. (') From that time the whole island, with the exception of the kingdom of Hiero, became tributaiy, and, for the first time, Rome had a subject province. If, in spite of this definitive success, there were mo- (') Nearly thirteen millions of francs [520,000]. (Polybiup, T. 62.) L 162 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. mentary checks, we must attribute them in great part to the continual changes in the plans of campaign, which varied annually with the generals. Several consuls, nevertheless, were wanting neither in skill nor perseverance, and the Senate, always grateful, gave them worthy recompense for their services. Some obtained the honours of the triumph ; among others, Duilius, who gained the first naval battle, and Lutatius, whose victory decided peace. At Carthage, on the contrary, the best generals fell victims to envy and ingratitude. Xanthippus, who vanquished Reg- ulus, was summarily removed through the jealousy of the nobles, whom he had saved ; ( a ) and Hamilcar, calumniated by a rival faction, did not receive from his government the support necessary for the execu- tion of his great designs. During this contest of twenty-three years, the war often experienced the want of a skilful and stable di- rection : but the legions lost nothing of their ancient 7 O O valour, and they were even seen one day proceeding to blows with the auxiliaries, who had disputed with them the possession of the most dangerous post. We may cite also the intrepidity of the tribune Calpur- nius Flamma, who saved the legions shut up by Ha- milcar in a defile. He covered the retreat with three hundred men, and, found alive under a heap of dead bodies, received from the consul a crown of leaves a modest reward, but sufficient then to inspire heroism. All noble sentiments were raised to such a point as even to do justice to an enemy. The consul, L. Cor- nelius, gave magnificent funeral rites to Hanno, a Car- (') Polybius, I. 30. PUNIC WARS AND WAES OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA. 163 thaginian general, who had died valiantly in fighting against him. (*) During the first Punic war, the Carthaginians had often threatened the coasts of Italy, but never attempt- ed a serious landing. They could find no allies among the peoples recently subdued; neither the Samnites, nor the Lucanians who had declared for Pyrrhus, nor the Greek towns in the south of the Peninsula, showed any inclination to revolt. The Cisalpine Gauls, lately so restless, and whom we shall soon see taking arms again, remained motionless. The disturbances which broke out at the close of the Punic war among the Salentini and Falisci were without importance, and appear to have had no connection with the great struggle between Rome and Carthage. ( 2 ) This resistance to all attempts at insurrection proves that the government of the Republic was equitable, and that it had given satisfaction to the vanquished. No complaint was heard, even after great disasters; and yet the calamities of war bore cruelly upon the cultivators incessantly obliged to quit their fields to fill up the voids made in the legions. At home, the Senate had in its favour a great prestige, and abroad it enjoyed a reputation of good faith which ensured sincere alliances. The first Punic war exercised a remarkable influ- ence on manners. Until then the Romans had not en- tertained continuous relations with the Greeks. The conquest of Sicily rendered these relations numerous and active, and whatever Hellenic civilisation contain- ed, whether useful or pernicious, made itself felt. (') Valerius Maximus, V. i. 2. ( 2 ) Titus Livius, Epitome, XIX. 164 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. The religious ideas of the two peoples were differ- ent, although Roman paganism had great affinity with the paganism of Greece. This had its philosophers, its sophists, and its freethinkers. At Rome, nothing of the sort ; there, creeds were profound, simple, and sincere ; and, moreover, from a very remote period, the government had made religion subordinate to politics, and had laboured to give it a direction advantageous to the State. The Greeks of Sicily introduced into Rome two sects of philosophy, the germs of which became devel- oped at a later period, and which had perhaps more relation with the instincts of the initiated than with those of the initiators. Stoicism fortified the practice of the civic virtues, but without modifying their an- cient roughness; Epicurism, much more extensively spread, soon flung the nation into the search after ma- terial enjoyments. Both sects, by inspiring contempt for death, gave a terrible power to the people who adopted them. The war had exhausted the finances of Carthage. The mercenaries, whom she could not pay, revolted in Africa and Sardinia at the same time. They were only vanquished by the genius of Hamilcar. In Sar- dinia, the excesses of the mutineers had caused an in- surrection among the natives, who drove them out of the country. The Romans did not let this opportu- nity for intervention escape them ; and, as before in the case of the Mamertines, the Senate, according to all appearance, assumed as a pretext that there were Italiots among the mercenaries in Sardinia. The isl- and was taken, and the conquerors imposed a new PUNIC WARS AND WAKS OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA. contribution on Carthage for having captured some merchant vessels navigating in those latitudes a scandalous abuse of power, which Polybius loudly condemns. ( J ) Reduced to impotency by the loss of their navy and the revolt of their army, the Cartha- ginians submitted to the conditions of the strongest. They had quitted Sicily without leaving any regrets ; but it was not the same with Sardinia ; there their government and dominion were popular, probably from the community of religion and the Phoenician origin of some of the towns. ( 2 ) For a long time aft- erwards, periodical rebellions testified to the affection of the Sardinians for their old masters. Towards the same epoch, the Romans took possession of Corsica, and, from 516 to 518, repulsed the Ligures and the Gaulish tribes, with whom they had been at peace for forty-five years. III. While the Republic protected its northern warofiiiyria frontiers against the Gauls and Ligures, and combated the influence of Carthage in Sardinia and Corsica, she undertook, against a small barbarous people, another expedition, less diffi- cult, it is true, but which was destined to have im- mense consequences. The war of Hlyria, in fact, was on the point of opening to the Romans the roads to Greece and Asia, subjected to the successors of Alex- ander, and where Greek civilisation was dominant. Now become a great maritime power, Rome had C) Polybius, III. 10, 27, 28. ( s ) The Sardinians owed their civilisation to the Phoenicians ; the Sicilians had received theirs from the Greeks. This difference explains the attachment of the first for Carthage, and the repulsion of the others for the Punic rule. 166 HISTOBY OF JULIUS CAESAR. henceforward among her attributes the police of the seas. The inhabitants of the eastern coasts of the Adriatic, addicted to piracy, were destructive to com- merce. Several times they had carried their depreda- tions as far as Messenia, and defeated Greek squad- rons sent to repress their ravages. (*) These pirates belonged to the Illyrian nation. The Greeks consid- ered them as barbarians, which meant foreigners to the Hellenic race; it is probable, nevertheless, that they had a certain affinity with it. Inconvenient al- lies of the kings of Macedonia, they often took arms either for or against them ; intrepid and fierce hordes, they, were ready to sell their services and blood to any one who would pay them, resembling, in this re- spect, the Albanians of the present day, believed by some to be their descendants driven into the mount- ains by the invasions of the Slaves. ( 2 ) The king of the Illyrians was a child, and his mother, Teuta, exercised the regency. This fact alone reveals manners absolutely foreign to Hellenic and Roman civilisation. A chieftain of Pharos (Lesina), named Demetrius, in the pay of Teuta, occupied as a fief the island of Corcyra Mgra (now Ourzold), and exercised the functions of prime minister. The Ro- mans had no difficulty in gaining him ; moreover, the Illyrians furnished a legitimate cause of war by as- sassinating an ambassador of the Republic. ( 3 ) The Senate immediately dispatched an army and a fleet to reduce them (525). Demetrius surrendered his island, which served as a basis against Apollonia, 0) Polybius, II. 4, 5, 10. ( 2 ) Halm, Albanesische Studien. ( 3 ) Florus, II. 5. Appian, Wars of Ilhjria, 7. PUNIC WARS AND WARS OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA. 1(57 Dyrrhachiurn, Nutria, and a great part of the coast. After a resistance of some months, the Illyrians sub- mitted, entered into an engagement to renounce pira- cy, surrendered several ports, and agreed to choose Demetrius, the ally of the Romans, for the guardian of their king. (*) By this expedition, the Republic gained great pop- ularity throughout Greece; the Athenians and the Achaian league especially were lavish of thanks, and began from that time to consider the Romans as their protectors against their dangerous neighbours, the kings of Macedonia. As to the Illyrians, the lesson they had received was not sufficient to correct them of their piratical habits. Ten years later another ex- pedition was sent to chastise the Istrians at the head of the Adriatic, ( 2 ) and soon afterwards the disobe- dience of Demetrius to the orders of the Senate brought war again upon Illyria. He was compelled to take refuge with Philip of Macedon, w r hile the young king became the ally or subject of the Repub- lic. ( 3 ) In the mean time a new war attracted the at- tention of the Romans. IV. The idea of the Senate was evidently to push invasion of the as- i ts domination towards the north of Ita- alpines (623). ^ &nd fa^ t() preserve ft ft om ^ j nya . sion of the Gauls. In 522, at the proposal of the tribune Flaminius, the Senones had been expelled from Picenum, and their lands, declared public do- main, were distributed among the plebeians. This (') Polybius, II. 11 et seq. ( 3 ) Titus Livius, Epitome, XX., year of Rome 533. Orosius, IV. xiii. ( 3 ) Polybius, III. 16 et seq. 168 HISTORY OF JULIUS CLESAR. measure, a presage to the neighbouring Gaulish tribes of the lot reserved for them, excited among them great uneasiness, and they began to prepare for a for- midable invasion. In 528, they called from the other side of the Alps a mass of barbarians of the warlike race of the Gesatse. ( a ) The terror at Rome was great. The same interests animated the peoples of Italy, and the fear of a danger equally threatening for all began to inspire them with the same spirit. ( 2 ) They rushed to arms; an army of 150,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry was sent into the field, and the census of men capable of bearing arms amounted to nearly 800,000. The enumeration of the contingents of each country ( 3 ) furnishes valuable information on (') A people situated between the Rhone and the Alps. (Polyb., II. 22, 34.) (*) " It was not Rome alone that the Italians, terrified by the Gaulish inva- sion, believed they had thus to defend; they understood that it was their own safety which was in danger." (Polybius, II. 23.) ( 3 ) The following, according to Polybius (II. 24), was the number of the forces of Italy : FOOT. UOBSE. Two consular armies, each of two legions, of 5,200 foot and 300 cavalry 20,800 1,200 Allied troops 30,000 2,000 Sabines and Etruscans 50,000 more than 4,000 Umbrians and Sarsinates, inhabitants of the Apennines 20,000 Cenomani and Veneti 30,000 At Rome 20,000 1,500 Allies (of the reserve) 30,000 2,000 Latins 80,000 5,000 Samnites 70,000 7,000 lapygians and Messapians 50,000 16,000 Lucanians 30,000 3.000 Marsi, Marrucini, Frentani, and Vestini .... 20,000 4,000 In Sicily and at Tarentum, two legions of 4,200 foot and 200 horse 8,400 400 Roman and Campanian citizens 250,000 23,000 699,200 . 69,100 PUNIC WARS AND WARS OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA. 169 the general population of Italy, which appears, at this period, to have been, without reckoning the slaves, about the same as at the present day, yet with this difference, that the men capable of bearing arms were then in a much greater proportion. ( l ) These docu- ments also give rise to the remark that the Samnites, only forty years recovered from the disasters of their sanguinary struggles, could still furnish 77,000 men. The Gauls penetrated to the centre of Tuscany, and at Fesulsa defeated a Roman army ; but, intimidated by the unexpected arrival of the consul L. ^Emilius coming from Rimini, they retired, when, meeting the other consul, Caius Atilius, who, returning from Sar- dinia, had landed at Pisa, they were enclosed between two armies, and were annihilated. In the following year, the Gaulish tribes, successively driven back to the other side of the Po, were defeated again on the banks of the Adda; the coalition of the Cisalpine peoples was dissolved, without leading to the com- plete submission of the country. The colonies of Cremona and Placentia contributed, nevertheless, to hold it in check. While the north of Italy seemed sufficient to ab- sorb the attention of the Romans, great events were passing in Spain. V. Carthage, humiliated, had lost the empire of second Punic war tne sea > w ith Sicily and Sardinia. Rome, on the contrary, had strengthened her- self by her conquests in the Mediterranean, in Illyria, ( J ) See the Memoir of Zurapt, Stand der Bevolkerung in Alterthum. Berlin, 1841. 8 170 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. and in the Cisalpine. Suddenly the scene changes: the dangers which threatened the African town dis- appear, Carthage rises from her abasement, and Rome, which had lately been able to count 800,000 men in condition to carry arms, will soon tremble for her own existence. A change so unforeseen is brought about by the mere appearance in the ranks of the Cartha- ginian army of a man of genius, Hannibal. His father, Hamilcar, chief of the powerful faction of the Barcas, had saved Carthage by suppressing the insurrection of the mercenaries. Charged afterwards with the war in Spain, he had vanquished the most warlike peoples of that country, and formed in silence a formidable array. Having discovered early the merit of a young man named Hasdrubal, he took him into his favour with the intention of making him his successor. In taking him for his son-in-law, he en- trusted to him the education of Hannibal, on whom rested his dearest hopes. Hamilcar having been slain in 526, Hasdrubal had taken his place at the head of the army. The progress of the Carthaginians in Spain, and the state of their forces in that country, had alarmed the Senate, which, in 526, obliged the government of Car- thage to subscribe to a new treaty, prohibiting the Punic army from passing the Ebro, and attacking the allies of the Republic. ( x ) This last article referred to the Saguntines, who had already had some dis- putes with the Carthaginians. The Romans affected not to consider them as aborigines, and founded their plea on a legend which represented this people as a (') Polybius, III. 30. PUNIC WAKS AND WARS OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA. colony from Ardea, contemporary with the Trojan war. (*) By a similar conduct Rome created allies in Spain to watch her old adversaries, and this time, as in the case of the Mamertines, she showed an inter- ested sympathy in favour of a weak nation exposed to frequent collisions with the Carthaginians. Has- drubal had received the order to carry into execution the new treaty ; but he was assassinated by a Gaul, in 534, and the army, without waiting for orders from Carthage, chose by acclamation for its chief Hannibal, then twenty-nine years of age. In spite of the rival factions, this choice was ratified, and perhaps any hes- itation on the part of the council in Carthage would only have led to the revolt of the troops. The party of the Barcas carried the question against the govern- ment, and confirmed the power of the young general. Adored by the soldiers, who saw in him their own pupil, Hannibal exercised over them an absolute au- thority, and believed that with their old band he could venture upon anything. The Saguntines were at war with the Turbuletae, ( 2 ) allies or subjects of Carthage. In contempt of the treaty of 256, Hannibal laid siege to Saguntum, and took it after a siege of several months. He pretend- ed that, in attacking his own allies, the Saguntines had been the aggressors. The people of Saguntum hastened to implore the succour of Rome. The Sen- ate confined itself to despatching commissioners, some to Hannibal, who gave them nd attention, and others to Carthage, where they arrived only when Saguntum (') Titus Livins, XXI. 7. ( a ) Appian, Wars of Spain, 10. 172 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. had ceased to exist. An immense booty, sent by the conqueror, had silenced the faction opposed to the Barcas, and the people, as well as the soldiers, ele- vated by success, breathed nothing but war. The Roman ambassadors, sent to require indemnities, and even to demand the head of Hannibal, were ill re- ceived, and returned declaring hostilities unavoidable. Rome prepared for war with her usual firmness and energy. One of the consuls was ordered to pass into Sicily, and thence into Africa ; the other to lead an army by sea to Spain, and expel the Carthaginians from that country. But, without waiting the issue of negotiations, Hannibal was in full march to trans- fer the war into Italy. Sometimes treating with the Celtiberian or Gaulish hordes to obtain a passage through their territory, sometimes intimidating them by his arms, he had reached the banks of the Rhone, when the consul charged with the conquest of Spain, P. Cornelius Scipio, landing at the eastern mouth of that river, learnt that Hannibal had already entered the Alps. He then leaves his army to his brother Cneius, returns promptly to Pisa, places himself at the head of the troops destined to fight the Boii, crosses the Po with them, hoping by this rapid movement to surprise the Carthaginian general at the moment when, fatigued and weakened, he entered the plains of Italy. The two armies met on the banks of the Tessino (536). Scipio, defeated and wounded, fell back on the colony of Placentia. Rejoined in the neighbour- hood of that town by his colleague Tib. Sempronius Longus, he again, on the Trebia, offered battle to the PUNIC WARS AND WARS OF. MACEDONIA AND ASIA. 173 Carthaginians. A brilliant victory placed Hannibal in possession of a great part of Liguria and Cisalpine Gaul, tlie warlike hordes of which received him with enthusiasm and reinforced his army, reduced, after the passage of the mountains, to less than 30,000 men. Flattered by the reception of the Gauls, the Cartha- ginian general tried also to gain the Italiots, and, an- nouncing himself as the liberator of oppressed peo- ples, he took care, after the victory, to set at liberty all the prisoners taken from the allies. He hoped that these liberated captives would become for him useful emissaries. In the spring of 537 he entered Etruria, crossed the marshes of the Val di Chiana, and, drawing the Roman army to the neighbourhood of the Lake Trasimenus, into an unfavourable locality, destroyed it almost totally. The terror was great at Rome ; yet the conqueror, after devastating Etmria, and attacking Spoletum in vain, crossed the Apennines, threw himself into Urn- bria and Picenum, and thence directed his march through Sarnnium towards the coast of Apulia. In fact, having reached the centre of Italy, deprived of all communication with the mother country, without the engines necessary for a siege, with no assured line of retreat, having behind him the army of Sempronius, what must Hannibal do? Place the Apennines be- tween himself and Rome, draw nearer to the popula'- tions more disposed in his favour, and then, by the conquest of the southern provinces, establish a solid basis of operation, in direct communication with Car- thage. In spite of the victory of Trasimenus, his po- sition w r as critical, for, except the Cisalpine Gauls, all 174 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. the Italiot peoples remained faithful to Kome, and so far no one had come to increase his army. ( ; ) Thus Hannibal remained several months between Casilirmm and Arpi, where Fabius, by his skilful movements, would have succeeded in starving the Carthaginian army, if the term of his command had not expired. Moreover, the popular party, irritated at a system of temporising which it accused of cowardice, raised to the consulship, as the colleague of ^Ernilius Paulus, Varro, a man of no capacity. Obliged to remain in Apulia, to procure subsistence for his troops, Hanni- bal, being attacked imprudently, entirely defeated, near Cannae, two consular armies composed of eight legions and of an equal number of allies, amounting to 87.000 men (538. ( 2 ) One of the consuls perished, the other escaped, followed only by a few horsemen. 40,000 Romans had been killed or taken, and Hanni- bal sent to Carth.age a bushel of gold rings taken from the fingers of knights who lay on the field of battle. ( 3 ) From that moment part of Samnium, Apu- lia, Lucania, and Bruttium declared for the Carthagin- ians, while the 6rjeek towns of the south of the penin- sula remained favourable to the Romans. ( 4 ) About 0) Polybius, III. 90. "The allies had till then remained firm in their at- tachment." (Titus Livius, XXII. 61.) "This fidelity which they have pre- served towards us in the midst of our reverses." (Speech of Fabius, Titus Liv- ius, XXII. 39.) ( 2 ) There were among the Roman troops Samnite cavalry. (Titus Livius, XXVII. 43.) ( 3 ) Titus Livius, XXII. 49; XXIII. 12. "In the second Punic war, the use of rings had already become common ; otherwise it would have been impos- sible for Hannibal to send three modii of rings to Carthage." (Pliny, XXXIII. 6.) We read in Appian : "The tribunes of the soldiers wear the gold ring, their inferiors have it of ivory." (Punic Wars, VIII. cv.) (*) "The Greek towns, inclined to maintain their alliance with Rome." PUNIC WARS AND WARS OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA. 175 the same time, as an increase of ill fortune, L. Postu- mus, sent against the Gauls, was defeated, and his army cut to pieces. The Romans always showed themselves admirable in adversity ; and thus the Senate, by a skilful policy, went to meet the consul Varro, and thank him for not having despaired of the Republic ; it would, how- ever, no longer employ the troops which had retreat- ed from the battle, but sent them into Sicily with a prohibition to return into Italy until the enemy had been driven out of it. They refused to ransom the prisoners in Hannibal's hands. The fatherland, they said, had no need of men who allowed themselves to be taken arms in hand. (*) This reply made people report at Rome that the man who possessed power was treated very differently from the humble citi- zen. ( 2 ) The idea of asking for peace presented itself to no- body. Each rivalled the other in sacrifices and de- votion. New legions were raised, and there were en- rolled 8,000 slaves, who were restored to freedom after the first combat. ( 3 ) The treasury being empty, all the private fortunes were brought to its aid. The proprietors of slaves taken for the army, the fanners of the revenue charged with the furnishing of provi- sions, consented to be repaid only at the end of the war. Everybody, according to his means, maintain- ed at his own expense freedmen to serve on the gal- (Titus Livius, XXIV. 1.) Even in Bruttium, the small town of Petelia de- fended itself against Hannibal with the greatest energy; the women fought like the men. (Appian, VII. 29.) ( l ) Eutropius, III. 6. , (") Titus Livius, XXVI. 1. (*) Titus Livius, XXIV. 14. 176 HISTORY OF JULIUS (LESAR. leys. After the example of the Senate, widows and minors carried their gold and silver to the public treasury. It was forbidden for anybody to keep at home either jewels, plate, silver or copper money, above a certain value, and, by the law Oppia, even the toilette of the ladies was limited. ( l ) Lastly, the duration of family mourning for relatives slain before the enemy was restricted to thirty days. ( 2 ) After the victory of Cannae' it would have been more easy for Hannibal to march straight upon Rome than after Trasimenus; yet, since so great a captain did not think this possible to attempt, it is not unin- teresting to inquire into his motives. In the first place, his principal force was in Numidian cavalry, which would have been useless in a siege ; ( 3 ) then, he had generally the inferiority in attacking fortress- es. Thus, after Trebia, he could not reduce Placen- tia ; ( 4 ) after Trasimenus, he failed before Spoletum ; three times he marched upon Naples, without ventur- ing to attack it ; later still, he was obliged to aban- (') "The Oppian law, proposed by the tribune C. Oppius, under the consul- ship of Q. Fabius and Tiberius Sempronius (539), in the height of the second Punic war, forbad the women to have for their use more than half an ounce of gold, to wear dresses of different colours, &c., to be driven or carried about Rome, within a radius of seven miles, in a chariot drawn by horses, except to attend the public sacrifices." This law, being only temporary, was revoked, in spite of the opposition of P. Cato, in 559. (Titus Livius, XXXIV. 1, 6.) ( ! ) Valerius Maximus, I. i. 15. ( 3 ) "It was in his cavalry that Hannibal placed all his hopes." (Pcjybins, III. 101.) " Hannibal's cavalry alone caused the victories of Carthage and the defeats of Rome." (Polybius, IX. 3.) " The loss of 500 Nnmklians was felt more by Hannibal than any other check, and from that time he had no longer the superiority in cavalry which had previously given him so much advant- age" (543). (Titus Livius, XXVI. 38.) (*) "Hannibal remembered how he had failed before Placentia." (Titus Livius, XXVI I. 39.) PUNIC WARS AND WARS OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA. 177 don the sieges of Nola, Cumse, and Casilinum. (*) What, then, could be more natural than his hesitation to attack Rome, defended by a numerous population, accustomed to the use of arms ? The most striking proof of the genius of Hannibal is the fact of his having remained sixteen years in Italy, left almost to his own forces, reduced to the ne- cessity of recruiting his army solely among his new allies, and of subsisting at their expense, ill seconded by the Senate of his own country, having always to face at least two consular armies, and, lastly, shut up in the peninsula by the Roman fleets, which guarded its coasts to intercept reinforcements from Carthage. His constant thought, therefore, was to make himself master of some important points of the coast in order to open a communication with Africa. After Cannae, he occupies Capua, seeks to gain the sea by Na- ples, ( 2 ) Cumse, Puteoli ; unable to effect these ob- jects, he seizes upon Arpi and Salapia, on the east- ern coast, where he hopes to meet the ambassadors of the King of Macedonia. He next makes Brut- tium his base of operation, and his attempts are di- rected against the maritime places, now against Bran- dusium and Tarentum, now against Locri and Rhe- gium. All the defeats sustained by the generals of the Republic had been caused, first, by the superiority of the Numidian cavalry, and the inferiority of the hast- (') Titus Livius, XXIII. 15 and 18. Hannibal reduced by famine the for- tresses of Casilinum and Nuceria ; as to the citadel of Tarentum, it resisted five years, and could not be taken by force. (Titus Livius, XXVII. 25.) (") ' ' Hannibal descends towards Naples, having at heart to secure a mari- time place to receive succours from Africa." (Titus Livius, XXIII. 15.) 8* M 178 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. ily levied Latin soldiers, ( l ) opposed to old veteran troops ; and, next, by excessive rashness in face of an able captain, who drew his adversaries to the position which he had chosen. Nevertheless, Hannibal, con- siderably weakened by his victories, exclaimed, after Cannae, as Pyirhus had done after Heraclea, that such another success would be his ruin. ( 2 ) Q: Fabius Maximus, recalled to power (539), continued a system of methodical war; while Marcellus, his colleague, bolder, ( 3 ) assumed the offensive, and arrested the progress of the enemy, by obliging him to shut him- self up in a trapezium, formed on the north by Capua and Arpi, on the south by Rhegiuni and Tarentum. In 543 the war was entirely concentrated round two places ; the citadel of Tarentum, blockaded by the Carthaginians, and Capua, besieged by the two con- suls. These had surrounded themselves with lines of countervallation against the place, and of circuni- vallation against the attacks from without. Hanni- bal, having failed in his attempt to force these latter, marched upon Rome, in the hope of causing the siege of Capua to be raised, and by separating the two consular armies, defeating them one after the other in the plain country. Having arrived under the walls of the capital, a^d foreseeing too many difficulties in the way of making himself master of so large a town, he abandoned his plan of attack, and fell back to the environs of Khegium. His abode there was prolong- ed during several years, with alternations of reverse and success, in the south of Italy, the populations of 0) Polybius, III. 106. () Appian, Wars of Hannibal, 26. ( 3 ) Plutarch, Afarcellus, 11, 33. PtfNIC WARS AND WARS OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA. 179 which were favourable to him; avoiding engagements, keeping near the sea, ' and not going beyond the southern extremity of the territory of Samnium. In 547, a great army, which had left Spain under the command of one of his brothers, Hasdrubal, had crossed the Alps, and was advancing to unite with him, marching along the coast of the Adriatic. Two consular armies were charged with the war against the Carthaginians: one, under the command of the ci 7 consul M. Livius Salinator, in Umbria; the other, hav- ing at its head the consul C. Claudius Nero, held Han- nibal in check in Lucania, and had even obtained an advantage over him at Grumentum. Hannibal had advanced as far as Canusium, when the consul Clau- dius Nero, informed of the numerical superiority of the army of succour, leaves his camp under the guard of Q. Cassius, his lieutenant, conceals his departure, effects his junction with his colleague, and defeats, near the Metaurus, Hasdrubal, who perished in the battle with all his army. (*) From that moment Han- nibal foresees the fate of Carthage ; he abandons Apu- lia, and even Lucania, and retires into the only coun- try which had remained faithful, Bruttium. He re- mains shut up there five years more, in continual ex- pectation of reinforcements, ( 2 ) and only quits Italy when his country, threatened by the Roman legions, already on the African soil, calls him home to her de- fence. In this war the marine of the two nations perform- ed an important part. The Romans strained every nerve to remain masters of the sea ; their fleets, sta- ( l ) Titus Livius, XXVII. 49. (") Appian, Wars of Hannibal, 54. 180 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. tioned at Ostia, Brundusium, and Lilybseum, kept in- cessantly the most active watch upon the coasts of Italy; they even made cruises to the neighbourhood of Carthage and as far as Greece. (*) The difficulty of the direct communications induced the Carthagin- ians to send their troops by way of Spain and the Alps, where their armies recruited on the road, rather than dispatch them to the southern coast of Italy. Hannibal received but feeble reinforcements ; ( 2 ) Livy mentions two only : the first of 4,000 Numidians and (') In 536, Rome had at sea 220 quinquiremes and 20 small vessels (Titus Livius, XXI. 17), with which she protected efficiently the coasts of Sicily and Italy. (Titus Livius, XXI. 49, 51.) In 537, Scipio, with 35 vessels, destroyed a Carthaginian fleet at the mouth of the Eb^> (Titus Livius, XXII! 19), and the consul Servilius Geminus effected a landing in Africa with 120 vessels, in order to prevent Carthage from sending reinforcements to Hannibal. (Titus Livius, XXII. 31.) In 538, the fleet of Sicily is reinforced with 25 ships. (Titus Livius, XXII. 37.) In 539, Valerius Lzevinus had 25 vessels to protect the coast of the Adriatic, and Fluvius the same number to watch the coast of Ostia (Titus Livius, XXIII. 32) after which the Adriatic fleet, raised to 55 sails, is sent to act as a check upon Macedonia. (Titus Livius, XXIII. 38.) The same year, the fleet of Sicily, under Titus Otacilius, defeats the Carthagin- ians. (Titus Livius, XXIII. 41.) In 540 Rome has 150 vessels (Titus Livius, XXIV. 11) this year and the following, the Roman fleet defends Apollonia, attacked by the King of Macedonia, and lands troops which ravage the terri- tory of Utica. The effective strength of the Roman fleet appears not to have varied until 543, the epoch at which Greece again required the presence of 50 Roman ships and Sicily 100. (Titus Livius, XXVI. 1.) In 544, 20 vessels were stationed in the waters of Rhegium, to secure the passage of provisions be^ tween Sicily and the garrison of Tarentum. (Titus Livius, XXVI. 39.) In 545, 30 sails are detached from the fleet of Sicily to cruise before that town. (Titus Livius, XXVII. 22.) In 546, Carthage was preparing a formidable fleet of 200 sails (Titus Livius, XXVII. 22) ; Rome opposes it with 280 ships : 30 defend the coast of Spain, 50 guard Sardinia, 50 the mouths of the Tiber, 50 Macedonia, 100 are stationed in Sicily, ready to make a descent in Africa, and the Carthaginian fleet is beaten before Clupea. (Titus Livius, XXVII. 29. ) * Lastly, in 547, a second victory gained by Valerius Laevinus renders the sea entirely free. (Titus Livius, XXVIII. 4.) ( a ) "The Carthaginians, occupied only with the care of maintaining them- selves in Spain, sent no succour to Hannibal, as though he had had nothing but successes in Italy." (Titus Livius, XXVTIT. 12.) PUNIC WARS AND WARS OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA. 40 elephants ; and the second, brought by Bomilcar to the coast of the Ionian Gulf, near Locri. ( J ) All the other convoys appear to have been intercepted, and one of the most considerable, laden with stores and troops, was destroyed on the coast of Sicily. ( 2 ) We cannot but admire the constancy of the Ro- mans in face of enemies who threatened them on all sides. During the same period they repressed the Cis- alpine Gauls and the Etruscans, combated the King of Macedonia, the ally of Hannibal, sustained a fierce war in Spain, and resisted in Sicily the attacks of the Syracusans, who, after the death of Hiero,had declared against the Republic. It took three years to reduce Syracuse, defended by Archimedes. Rome kept on foot, as long as the Second Punic war lasted, from six- teen to twenty-four legions, ( 3 ) recruited only in the town and in Latium. ( 4 ) These twenty-three legions represented an effective force of about 100,000 men, a number which will not appear exaggerated if we compare it with the census of 534, which gave 270,213 men, and only comprised persons in a condition to bear arms. In the thirteenth year of the war the chances seemed in favour of the Republic. P. Cornelius Scipio, the son of the consul defeated at Trebia, had just expelled the Carthaginians from Spain. The people, recognising 0) Titus Livius, XXIII. 13 and 41. () Appian, Wars of Hannibal, liv. ( 3 ) In 540, Rome had on foot eighteen legions; in 541, twenty legions; in 542 and 543, twenty-three legions ; in 544 and 546, twenty-one ; in 547, twen- ty-three ; in 551, twenty ; in 552, sixteen ; in 553, fourteen ; in 554, the num. ber is reduced to six. (Titus Livius, XXIV. 11 44 ; XXV. 3 ; XXVI. 1, 28 ; XXVII. 22, 36 ; XXX. 2, 27, 41 ; XXXI. 8.) (*) "The Romans raised their infantry and eavalry only in Rome and Lo- :ium." (Titus Livius, XXII. 37.) 182 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. his genius, had conferred upon him, six years before, the powers of proconsul, though he was only twenty- four years of age. On his return to Rome, Scipio, elected consul (549), passed into Sicily, and from thence to Africa, where, after a campaign of two years, he defeated Hannibal in the plains of Zama, and compelled the rival of Rome to sue for peace (552). The Senate accorded to the conqueror the greatest honour which a Republic can confer upon one of her citizens she left it to him to dictate terms to the vanquished. Carthage was compelled to give up her ships and her elephants, to pay 10,000 talents (58,000,000 francs [2,320,000]), and, finally, to enter into the humiliating engagement not to make war in future without the authorisation of Rome. VI. The second Punic war ended in the submission or the second of Carthage and Spain, but it was at the price of painful sacrifices. During this straggle of sixteen years, a great number of the most distinguished citizens had perished ; at Cannae alone two thousand seven hundred knights, two questors, twenty-one tribunes of the soldiers, and many old con- suls, praetors, and ediles were slain ; and so many sen- ators had fallen, that it was necessary to name a hund- red and seventy-seven new ones, taken from among those who had occupied the magistracies. (*) But such hard trials had tempered anew the national char- acter. ( 2 ) The Republic felt her strength and her re- ( 1 ) Titus Livius, XXIII. 23. ( 2 ) Q. Metcllus said " that the invasion of Hannibal had re-awakened the slumbering virtue of the Roman people." (Valerius Maximua, VII. ii. 3.) PUNIC WARS AND WARS OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA. 183 sources unfold themselves; she rejoiced in her victo- ries with a just pride, without yet experiencing the intoxication of a too great fortune, and new bonds were formed between the different peoples of Italy. War against a foreign invasion, in fact, has always the immense advantage of putting an end to internal dis- sensions, and unites the citizens against the common enemy. The greater part of the allies gave unequiv- ocable proofs of their devotion. The Republic owed its safety, after the defeat of Cannse, to the assistance of eighteen colonies, which furnished men and mon- ~ ' ey. (*) The fear of Hannibal had fortunately given strength to concord, both in Rome and in Italy : no more quarrels between the two orders, ( 2 ) no more divisions between the governing and the governed. Sometimes the Senate refers to the people the most serious questions ; sometimes the people, full of trust in the Senate, submits beforehand to its decision. ( 3 ) It was especially during the struggle against Han- nibal that the inconvenience of the duality and of the annual change of the consular powers became evi- dent ; ( 4 ) but this never-ceasing cause of weakness ( 1 ) The Senate demanded of thirty colonies men and money. Eighteen gave both with eagerness, namely, Signia, Norba, Saticulum, Brundusium, Fregellse, Luceria, VenusSa, Adria, Firmum, Arirninum, Pontia, Pastum, Cosa, Beneven- tum, Isernia, Spoletum, Placentia, and Cremona. The twelve colonies which refused to give any succours, pretending that they had neither men nor money, were : Nepete, Sutrium, Ardea, Gales, Alba, Carseoli, Cora, Suessa, Setia, Cir- ceii, Narnia, Interamna. (Titus Livius, XXVII. 9.) ( 2 ) "The quarrels and struggles between the two parties ended in the sec- ond Punic war." (Sallust, Fragments, I. vii.) ( 3 ) "Four tribes referred it to the Senate to grant the right of suffrage to Formitc, Fundi, and Arpinum ; but they were told in reply that to the people alone belonged the right of suffrage." (Titus Livius, XXXVIII. 36.) (*) "The annual change of generals was disastrous to the Romans. They 184 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. was, as we have seen before, compensated by the spir- it of patriotism. Here is a striking example : while Fabius was pro-dictator, Minucius, chief of the caval- ry, was, contrary to the usual custom, invested with the same powers. Hurried on by his temper, he com- promised the army, which was saved by Fabius. He acknowledged his error, submitted willingly to the orders of his colleague, and thus restored, by his own voluntary act, the unity of the command. ( l ) As to the continual change of the military chiefs, the force of circumstances rendered it necessary to break through this custom. The two Scipios remained seven years at the head of the army of Spain ; Scipio Africanus succeeded them for almost as long a period. The Senate and the people had decided that, during the war of Italy, the powers of the proconsuls and prae- tors might be prorogued, and that the same consuls might be re-elected as often as might be thought fit. ( 2 ) And subsequently, in the campaign against Philip, the tribunes pointed out in the following terms the disadvantage of such frequent changes : " During the four years that the war of Macedonia lasted, Sulpicius had passed the greater part of his consulship in seeking Philip and his army; Villius had overtaken the enemy, but had been recalled be- fore giving battle ; Quinctius, retained the greater part of the year at Rome by religious cares, would have pushed the war with sufficient vigour to have entirely terminated it, if he could have arrived at his recalled all those who had experience in war, as though they hud been sent not to fight, but only to practice." (Zonaras, Annales, VIII. 16.) ( l ) Titus Livius, XXII. 29. (") Titus Livius, XXVII. 5, 7. PUNIC WARS AND WARS OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA. 185 destination before the season was so far advanced. He had hardly entered his winter quarters, when he made preparations for recommencing the campaign with the spring, with a view of finishing it success- fully, provided no successor came to snatch victory from him." (') These arguments prevailed, and the consul was prorogued in his command. Thus continual wars tended to introduce the sta- bility of military powers and the permanence of ar- mies. The same legions had passed ten years in Spain ; others had been nearly as long in Sicily ; and though, at the expiration of their service, the old sol- diers were dismissed, the legions remained always un- der arms. Hence arose the necessity of giving lands to the soldiers who had finished their time of serv- ice; and, in 552, there were assigned to Scipio's vet- erans, for each year of service in Africa and Spain, two acres of the lands confiscated from the Samnites and Apulians. ( 2 ) It was the first time that Rome took foreign troops into her pay, sometimes Celtiberians, at others Cre- tans sent by Hiero of Syracuse, ( 3 ) in fact, mercenaries, and a body of discontented Gauls who had abandon- ed the Carthaginian army. ( 4 ) Many of the inhabitants of the allied towns were drawn to Rome, ( 5 ) where, in spite of the sacrifices imposed by the wars, commerce and luxury increased. The spoils which Marcellus brought from Sicily, and 0) Titus Livius, XXXII. 28. ( 2 ) Titus Livius, XXXI. 4, 49. ( 3 ) Titus Livius, XXIV. 49. Polybius, III. 75. () Zonaras, Annales, VIII. 16. (*) Titus Livius, XXXIX. 3. 186 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. especially from Syracuse, had given development to the taste for the arts, and this consul boasted of hav- ing been the first who caused his countrymen to ap- preciate and admire the masterpieces of Greece. (*) The games of the circus, in the middle of the sixth century, began to be more in favour. Junius and Decius Brutus had, in 490, exhibited for the first time the combats of gladiators, the number of which was soon increased to twenty-two pairs. ( 2 ) Towards this period, also (559), theatrical representations were first given by the ediles. ( 3 ) The spirit of speculation had taken possession of the high classes, as appears by the law forbidding the senators (law Claudia, 536) to maintain at sea ships of a tonnage of more than three hundred amphorae ; as the public wealth in- creased, the knights, composed of the class who paid most taxes, increased also, and tended to separate into two categories, some serving in the cavalry, and pos- sessing the horse furnished by the State (eqieua publi- cus), ( 4 ) the others devoting themselves to commerce and financial operations. The knights had long been employed in civil commissions, ( 5 ) and were often called to the high magistracies; and therefore Per- seus justly called them " the nursery of the Senate, and the young nobility out of which issued consuls and generals (imperatores)? ( 6 ) During the Punic wars they had rendered great services by making () Plutarch, Marcelfus, 28. . (") Titus Livius, XXIII. 30. ( s > Titus Livius, XXXIV. 54. (*) "Et equitcs Romanes milites et negociatores." (Sallust, Jugurtha, 65.) (*) "In 342, a senator and two knights were charged, during a famine, with the provisioning of Rome." (Titus Livius, IV. 3.) ( 6 ) Seurinarium senalus. (Titus Livius, XLII. 61.) PUNIC WARS AND WARS OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA. 187 [arge advances for the provisioning of the armies ; (*) md if some, as undertakers of transports, had enrich- ed themselves at the expense of the State, the Senate iesitated in punishing their embezzlements, for fear )f alienating this class, already powerful. ( 2 ) The ;erritorial wealth was partly in the hands of the *reat proprietors ; this appears from several facts, md, among others, from the hospitality given by a .ady of Apulia to 10,000 Roman soldiers, who had sscaped from the 'battle of Canute, whom she enter- tained at her own private cost on her own lands. ( 3 ) Respect for the higher classes had been somewhat shaken, as we learn from the adoption of a measure }f apparently little importance. Since the fall of the kingly power, there had been established in the pub- lie games no (distinction between the spectators. Def- >rence for authority rendered all classification super- ;' uous, and " never would a plebeian," says Valerius ?Iaximus, (*) "have ventured to place himself before i senator." But, towards 560, a law was passed for issigiiing to the members of the Senate reserved i laces. It is necessary, for the good order of society, ) increase the severity of the laws as the feeling of he social hierarchy becomes weakened. Circumstances had brought other changes ; the i ibuneship, without being abolished, had become an ixiliary of the aristocracy. The tribunes no longer : ;clusively represented the plebeian order ; they were i Imitted into the Senate ; they formed part of the (') Titus Livius, XXIII. 49. Valerius Maximus, V. vi. 8. ( 3 ) Titus Livius, XXI. 63 ; XXV. 3. (') Valerius Maximus, IV. viii. 2. (*) Valerius Maximus, IV. v. 1. government, and employed their authority in the in- terest of justice and the fatherland. (') The three kinds of comitia still remained, ( 2 ) but some modifica- tions had been introduced into them. The assembly of the curiae ( 3 ) consisted now only of useless formal- ities. Their attributes, more limited every day, were reduced to the conferring of the imperium, and the deciding of certain questions about auspices and re- ligion. The comitia by centuries, which in their ori- gin were the assembly of the people in arms, voting in the Campus Martius, and nominating their military chiefs, retained the same privileges ; only, the century had become a subdivision of the tribe. All the citi- zens inscribed in each of the thirty-five tribes were separated into five classes, according to their fortune ; each class was divided into two centuries, the one of the young men ( junior es), the other of the older men (seniores). As to the comitia by tribes, in which each voted without distinction of rank or fortune, their legislative o (') They had no deliberative voice, because, according to the public Roman law, no acting magistrate could vote. (See Mommsen, i. 187.) ( 2 ) "Now you have still the comitia by centuries, and the comitia by tribes. As for the comitia by curise, they are observed only for the auspices." (Cicero, Second Oration on the Agrarian Law, 9.) ( 3 ) The ancient mode of division by curiae had lost all significance and ceased to be in use. (Ovid, Fasti, II. 1.531.) So Cicero says, speaking of them : " The comitia, which are retained only for the sake of form, and because of the auspices, and which, represented by the thirty lictors, are but the appear- ance of what was before. Ad speciem atque usurpationem vetuslatis." (Ora- tion on the Agrarian Law, II. 12.) In the latter times of the Republic, the cu- riae, in the election of the magistrates, had only the inauguration of the fla- mens, of the king of the sacrifices (rex sacrijiculus), and probably the choice of the grand curion (curio maximus). (Titus Livius, XXVII. 8. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, V. 1. Aulus Gellius, XV. 27. Titus Livius, XXVII. vi. 30.) Dower continued to increase as that of the comitia by centuries diminished. Thus the Roman institutions, while appearing to remain the same, were incessantly changing. The po- litical assemblies, the laws of the Twelve Tables, the classes established by Servius Tullius,the yearly elec- tion to offices, the military services, the tribuneship, the edileship, all seemed to remain as in the past, and in reality all had changed through the force of cir- cumstances. Nevertheless, this appearance of immo- bility in the midst of progressing society was one ad- vantage of Roman manners. Religious observers of tradition and ancient customs, the Romans did not appear to destroy what they displaced; they applied ancient forms to new principles, and thus introduced innovations without disturbance, and without weak- ening the prestige of institutions consecrated by time. VII. During the second Punic war, Philip III., king of Macedonia, had attacked the Roman The Macedonian . . i j 1 war (5M). settlements in Illyria, invaded several provincesof Greece, and made an alliance with Han- nibal. Obliged to check these dangerous aggressions, the Senate, from 540 to 548, maintained, large forces on the coasts of Epirus and Macedonia ; and, united with the ^Etolian league, and with Attains, king of Pergamus, had forced Philip to conclude peace. But in 553, after the victory of Zama, when this prince again attacked the free cities of Greece and Asia al- lied to Rome, war was declared against him. The Senate could not forget that at this last battle a Mac- edonian contingent was found among the Carthagin ian troops, and that still there remained in Greece v large number of Roman citizens sold for slaves aftei the battle of Cannae. ( l ) Thus from each war was born a new war, and every success was destined tc force the Republic into the pursuit of others. Now the Adriatic was to be passed, first, to curb the powei of the Macedonians, and then to call to liberty those famous towns, the cradles of civilisation. The desti- nies of Greece could not be a matter of indifference to the Romans, who had borrowed her laws, her science, her literature, and her arts. Sulpicius, appointed to combat Philip, landed on the coast of Epirus, and penetrated into Macedonia, where he gained a succession of victories, while one of his lieutenants, sent to Greece with the fleet, caused the siege of Athens to be raised. During two years the war languished, but the Roman fleet, combined with that of Attalus and the Rhodians, remained mas- ter of the sea (555). T. Quinctius Flaminiuus, raised to the consulship while still young, justified, by his in- telligence and energy, the confidence of his fellow-citi- zens. He detached the Achaians and Boeotians from their alliance with the King of Macedonia, and, with the aid of the ^Etolians, gained the battle of Cynos- cephalae in Thessaly (557), where the legion routed the celebrated phalanx of Philip II. and Alexander the Great. Philip III., compelled to make peace, was fain to accept hard conditions ; the first of which was the obligation to withdraw his garrisons from the (') "Achaia alone bad twelve hundred for her share." (Titus Livius, XXXIV. 50.) towns of Greece and Asia, and the prohibition to make war without the permission of the Senate. The recital of Livy, which speaks of the decree pro- claiming liberty to Greece, deserves to be quoted. We see there what value the Senate then attached to moral influence, and to that true popularity which the glory of having freed a people gives : " The epoch of the celebration of the Isthmian games generally attracted a great concourse of specta- tors, either because of the natural taste of the Greeks for all sorts of games, or because of the situation of Corinth, which, seated on two seas, offered easy access to the curious. But on this occasion an immense multitude flocked thither from all parts, in expecta- tion of the future fate of Greece in general, and of each people in particular: this was the only subject of thought and conversation. The Koinans take their place, and the herald, according to custom, advances into the middle of the arena, whence the games are announced according to a solemn form. The trum- pet sounds, silence is proclaimed, and the herald pro- nounces these w r ords : 4 The Roman Senate, and S. T. Quinctius, imperator, conquerors of Philip and the Macedonians, re-establish in the enjoyment of liberty, their laws, and privileges, the Corinthians, the Phoci- ans, the Locrians, the island of Eubcea, the Magnetes, the Thessalians, the Perrhoebi, and the Achaeans of Phthiotis.' These were the names of all the nations which had been under the dominion of Philip. At this proclamation, the assembly was overcome with excess of joy. Hardly anybody could believe what he heard. The Greeks looked at each other as if they were still in the illusions of a pleasant dream, to be dissipated on awakening, and, distrusting the evi- dence of their ears, they asked their neighbours if they were not deceived. The herald is recalled, each man burning, not only to hear, but to see the messen- ger of such good news ; he reads the decree a second time. Then, no longer able to doubt their happiness, they uttered cries of joy, and bestowed on their liber- ator such loud and repeated applause as make it easy to see that, of all good, liberty is that which has most charm for the multitude. Then the games were cele- brated, but hastily, and without attracting the looks 01* the attention of the spectators. One interest alone absorbed their souls, and took from them the feeling of every other pleasure. " The games ended, the people rush towards the Roman general ; everybody is anxious to greet him, to take his hand, to cast before him crowns of flowers and of ribbons, and the crowd was so great that he was almost suffocated. He was but thirty -three years of age, and the vigour of life, joined with the intoxication of a glory so dazzling, gave him strength to bear up against such a trial. The joy of the peo- ples was not confined to the enthusiasm of the mo- ment: the impression was kept up long afterwards in their thoughts and speech. ' There was then,' they said, ' one nation upon earth, which, at its own cost, at the price of fatigues and perils, made war for the lib- erty of peoples even though removed from their fron- tiers and continent : this nation crossed the seas, in order that there should not be in the whole world one single unjust government, and that right, equity, arid law should be everywhere dominant. The voice of a herald had been sufficient to restore freedom to all the cities of Greece and Asia. The idea alone of Buch a design supposed a rare greatness 1 of soul ; but to execute it needed as much courage as fortune.'"^) There was, however, a shadow on the picture. All Peloponnesus was not freed, and Flamininus, after having taken several of his possessions from Nabis, king of Sparta, had concluded peace with him, with- out continuing the siege of Lacedsemon, of which he dreaded the length. He feared also the arrival of a more dangerous enemy, Antiochus III., who had al- ready reached Thrace, and threatened to go over into Greece with a considerable army. For this the allied Greeks, occupied only with their own interests, re- proached the Roman consul with having concluded peace too hastily with Philip, whom, in their opinion, he could have annihilated. ( 2 ) But Flamininus re- plied that he was not commissioned to dethrone Phil- ip, and that the existence of the kingdom of Macedo- nia was necessary as a barrier against the barbarians of Thrace, Illyria, and Gaul. ( 3 ) Meanwhile, accom- panied even to their ships by the acclamations of the people, the Roman troops evacuated the cities restored to liberty (560), and Flamininus returned to a triumph at Rome, bringing with him that glorious protector- (') Titus Livius, XXXIII. 32. ( 3 ) "The allies exclaimed that the war must be continued, and the tyrant exterminated, without which the liberty of Greece would be always in danger. It would have been better not to have taken up arms at all than to lay them down without having attained the end. The consul replied, ' If the siege of Lacedjemon retained the army a long time, what other troops could Rome op- pose to a monarch (Antiochus) so powerful and so formidable ?' " (Titns Liv- ius, XXXIV. 33.) ( 3 ) Titus Livius, XXXIII. 12. 9 N ate of Greece, so long an object of envy to the success- ors of Alexander. VIII. The policy of the Senate had been to make wragninstAntio- Macedonia a rampart against the Thra- ehus (563). cians, and Greece herself a rampart against Macedonia. But, though the Romans had freed the Achaean league, they did not intend to cre- ate a formidable power or confederation. Then, as formerly, the Athenians, the Spartans, the Boeotians, the ^Etolians, and, finally, the Achseans, each endeav- oured to constitute an Hellenic league for their own advantage; and each aspiring to dominate over the others, turned alternately to those from whom it hoped the most efficient support at the time. In the Hellenic peninsula, properly so called, the ^Etolians, to whose territory the Senate had promised to join Phocis and Locris, coveted the cities of Thessaly, which the Romans obstinately refused them. Thus, although reinstated in the possession of their independence, neither the ^Etolians, the Achaeans, nor yet the Spartans, were satisfied: they all dreamt of aggrandisement. The ^Etolians, more impatient, made, in. 562, three simultaneous attempts against Thessaly, the island of Eubcea, and Peloponnesus. Having only succeeded in seizing Demetrias, they called Antiochus IH. to Greece, that they might place him at the head of the hegemony, which they sought in vain to obtain from the Romans. The better part of the immense heritage left by Alexander the Great had fallen to this prince. Al- ready, some years before, Flarnininus had given him notice that it belonged to the honour of the Republic not to abandon Greece, of which the Roman people had loudly proclaimed itself the liberator ; and that after having delivered it from the yoke of Philip, the Senate now wished to free from the dominion of Anti- oqhus all the Asian cities of Hellenic origin. (*) Han- nibal, who had taken refuge with the King of Syria, encouraged him to resist, by engaging him to carry the struggle into Italy, as he himself had done. War was then declared by the Romans. To maintain the independence of Greece against an Asiatic prince was at once to fulfil treaties and undertake the defence of civilisation against barbarism. Thus, in proclaiming the most generous ideas, the Republic justified its am- bition. The services rendered by Rome were already for- gotten. ( 2 ) Antiochus thus found numerous allies in Greece, secret or declared. He organised a formi- dable confederacy, into which entered the ^Etolians, the Athamanes, the Elians, and the Boeotians, and, having landed at Chalcis, conquered Euboea and Thessaly. The Romans opposed to him the King of Macedonia and the Achaeans. Beaten at Thermopy- lae, in 563, by the consul Acilius Glabrio, aided by Philip, the King of Syria withdrew to Asia, and the ^Etolians, left to themselves, demanded peace, which was granted them in 563. It was not enough to have compelled Antiochus to abandon Greece. L. Scipio, having his brother, the ( 1 ) Titus Livius, XXXIV. 58. ( 2 ) " Other peoples of Greece had shown in this way a no less culpable for- getfulness of the benefits of the Roman people." (Titus Livius, XXXVI. 22.) vanquisher of Carthage, for his lieutenant, went in 564 to seek him out in his own territory. Philip fa- voured the passage of the Roman army, which cross- ed Macedonia, Thrace, and the Hellespont without difficulty. The victories gained at Myonnesus by sea, and at Magnesia by land, terminated the campaign, and compelled Antiochus to yield up all his prov- inces on this side Mount Taurus, and pay 15,000 tal- ents a third more than the tax imposed on Carthage after the second Punic war. The Senate, far from re- ducing Asia then to a province, exacted only just and moderate conditions. (*) All the Greek towns of that country were declared free, and the Romans only oc- cupied certain important points, and enriched their al- lies at the expense of Syria. The King of Pergamus and the Rhodian fleet had seconded the Roman army. Eumenes II., the successor of Attalus I., saw his king- dom increased ; Rhodes obtained Lycia and Caria ; Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, who had given aid to Antiochus, paid two hundred talents. ( 2 ) IX. The prompt submission of the East was a for- Thewarmthecia- * un ate occurrence for the Republic, for aipme (55S-579). near a ^. jjQjn^ enemies, always eager and watchful, might at any moment, supported or excited by their brethren on the other side of the Alps, attack her in the very centre of her empire. Indeed, since the time of Hannibal, war had been perpetuated in the Cisalpine, the bellicose tribes of which, though often beaten, engaged continually in (') Titus Livius, XXXVII. 43. ( s ) Appian, Wars of Hannibal, 43. new insurrections. The settlement of the affairs of Macedonia left the Senate free to act with more vig- our, and in 558 the defeat of the Ligures, of the Boii, of the Insubres, and of the Cenomani, damped the ar- dour of these barbarous peoples. The Ligures and the Boii, however, continued the strife; but the bloody battle of 561, fought near Modena, and, later, the rav- ages committed by L. Flamininus, brother of the con- queror of Cynoscephalse, and Scipio Nasica, during the following years, obliged the Boii to treat. Compelled to yield the half of their territory, they retired towards the Danube in 564, and three years afterwards Cis- alpine Gaul was formed into a Roman province. As to the Ligures, they maintained a war of despe- ration to the end of the century. Their resistance was such that Koine was obliged to meet it with measures of excessive rigour; and in 574, more than 47,000 Ligures were transported into a part of Sam- mum which had been left almost without inhabitants since the war with Hannibal. In 581, lands beyond the Po were distributed to other Ligures. (*) Every year the frontiers receded more towards the north, and military roads, ( 2 ) the foundation of important colonies, secured the march of the armies a system which had been interrupted during the second Punic war, but was afterwards adopted, and especially ap- plied to the south of Italy and the Cisalpine. ( 3 ) (') Titus Livius, XL. 38 ; XLII. 22. ( 2 ) Roads from Arezzo to Bologna, from Placentia to Rimini (Titus Livius, XXXIX. 2), and from Bologna to Aquileia. ( 3 ) ROMAN COLONIES 488-608. JEsulum (f>07), or ^Esium, according to Mommsen, Jesi in Umbria, on the River JKsis. In achieving the submission of this last province, Rome had put an end to other less important wars. ROMAN COLONIES Continued. Alsium (507), a maritime colony, Etruria ( Via Aurelia) ; Palo, near Porto. Fregence (509), a maritime colony, Etruria ( Via Aurelia) ; Torre Maccarese. Pyrgi (before 536), maritime colony, Etruria ( Via Aurelia) ; Santa Severa. Castrutn (555), Pagus, near Sylaceum; Bruttium, near Squillace; united in 631 to the colony Minerviae. Puteoli (560), maritime colony, Campania ; Pozzuoli; Prefecture. Vulturmtm (560), maritime colony, Campania; Castelamare, or Castel di Volturno ; Prefecture. Liternum (560), maritime colony, Campania ; Tor di Patria, near the Logo di Patriot; Prefecture. Salemum (560), maritime colony, Campania ; Salerno; decreed three years before. Buxentum (560), maritime colony, Lucania ; Policastro. Sipontum (560), maritime colony, Apulia ; Santa Maria di Sijtonto ; recolo- nised. Tempsa (Temesa) (560), maritime colony, Bruttium ; perhaps near to Torre del Piano del Casale. Croton (560), maritime colony, Bruttium ; Cotrone. Potentia (570), maritime colony, Picenum ; Porto di Potenza, or di Ricanali. Pisaurum (570), maritime colony, Gaulish Umbria ( Via Flaminia); Pesaro. Parma (571), Cispadane Gaul ( Via ^Emilia) ; Parma; Prefecture. Mutitia (571), Cispadane Gaul ( Via ^Emilia) ; Modena; Prefecture. Saturnia (571), Etruria (centre); Satwnia. Graviscce (573), maritime colony, Etruria (south) (Via Aurelia); San Cle- mentino or Le Saline (?). Luna (577), Etruria (north), ( Via Aurelia) ; Luni, near Sarzana. Auximum (597), maritime colony, Picenum ; Osimo. LATIN COLONIES : 488-608. Firmum (490), Picenum ( Via Valeria) ; Fermo. sEsernia (491), Samnium ; Isernia. Brundisium (510); lapygian Calabria ( Via Egnatia~) ; Brindisi. Spoletum (513), Umbria (Via Flaminia); Spoleto. Cremona (536), Transpadane Gaul; Cremona; reinforced in 560. Placentia (536), Cispadane Gaul ( Via ^Emilia) ; Piacenza. Copies (territory of Thurium) (561), Lucania. Fiio, or Vibona Valcntia, called also Hipponium, Bruttium (565, or perhaps 515); Bibona. Monte-Leone. Bononia (565), Cispadane Gaul ( Via sEmilia') ; Bologna. Aquileia (573), Transpadane Gaul ; Aquileia. Carteia (573), Spain ; St. Roque, in the Bay of Gibraltar. In 577 she reduced the Istrians; in 579, the Sardin- ians and the Corsicans ; finally, from 569 to 573, she extended her conquests into Spain, where she met the same enemies as Carthage had encountered. X. For twenty-six years had peace been maintained war against Persia with Philip, the JEtolians vanquished, the peoples of Asia subdued, and the greater part of Greece restored to liberty. Profiting by its co-operation with the Romans against Antiochus, the Achaean league had largely increased, and Philopcemen had brought into it Sparta, Messene, and the island of Zacynthus ; but these countries, impatient of the Achaean rule, soon sought to free themselves from it. Thus was realised the prediction of Philip, who told the Thessalian envoys, after the battle of Cynoscepha- lae, that the Romans would soon repent of having giv- en liberty to peoples incapable of enjoying it, and whose dissensions and jealousies would always keep up a dangerous agitation. ( l ) In fact, Sparta and Messene rebelled, and sued for help from Rome. Philopoemen, after having cruelly punished the first of these cities, perished in his struggle with the sec- ond. Thessaly and ^Etolia were torn by anarchy and civil war. Whilst the Republic was occupied in restoring tranquillity to these countries, a new adversary came to imprudently attract its wrath. One would say that Fortune, while raising up so many enemies against Rome, took pleasure in delivering them, one after the other, into her hands. The old legend of Horatius (') Titus Livius, XXXIX. 26. killing the three Curiatii in succession was a lesson which the Senate had never forgotten. Perseus, heir to his father's crown and enmities, had taken advantage of the peace to increase his army and his resources, to make allies, and to rouse up the kings and peoples of the East against Rome. Be- sides the warlike population of his own country, he had at his beck barbarous peoples like the Illyrians, the Thracians, and the Bastarnse, dwelling not far from the Danube. Notwithstanding the treaty, which forbad Macedonia to make war without the consent of the Senate, Perseus had silently aggrandised him- self on the side of Thrace ; he had placed garrisons in the maritime cities of Oenoe and Maronia, excited the Dardanians ( J ) to war, brought under subjection the Dolopes, and advanced as far as Delphi. ( 2 ) He endeavored to draw the Achseans into an alliance, and skilfully obtained the good-will of the Greeks. Eumenes II., king of Pergamus, who, like his father Attaius I., feared the encroachments of Macedonia, denounced at Rome this infraction of the old treaties. The fear with which a powerful prince inspired him, and the gratitude which he owed to the Republic for the aggrandisement of his kingdom after the Asian war, obliged him to cultivate the friendship of the Roman people. In 582 he came to Rome, and, hon- ourably received by the Senate, forgot nothing which might excite it against Perseus, whom he accused of ambitious designs hostile to the Republic. This de- nunciation raised violent enmities against Eumenes. On his way back to his kingdom, he was attacked by (') Titus Livius, XLI. 19. (') Titus Livius, XLI. 22. assassins, and dangerously wounded. Suspicion fell on the Macedonian monarch, not without show of reason, and was taken by the Republic as sufficient ground for declaring war on a prince whose power began to offend it. Bold in planning, Perseus displayed cowardice when it was necessary to act. After having from the first haughtily rejected the Roman claims, he waited in Thessaly for their army, which, ill-commanded and ill-organised, was beaten by his lieutenants and re- pulsed into mountain gorges, where it might have been easily destroyed. He then offered peace to P. Licinius Crassus ; but, notwithstanding his check, the consul replied, with all the firmness of the Roman character, that peace was only possible if Perseus would abandon his person and his kingdom to the discretion of the Senate. (*) Struck by so much as- surance, the king recalled his troops, and suffered the enemy to effect his retreat undisturbed. The inca- pacity of the Roman generals, however, their violences, and the want of discipline among the soldiers, had al- ienated the Greeks, who naturally preferred a prince of their own race to a foreign captain ; moreover, they did not see the Macedonians get the better of the Ro- mans without a certain satisfaction. In their eyes, it was the Hellenic civilisation overthrowing the pre- sumption of the Western barbarians. The campaigns of 584 and 585 were not more for- tunate for the Roman arms. A consul had the rash idea of invading Macedonia by the passes of Calli- peuce, where his army would have been annihilated ( l ) Titus Livius, XLII. G2. 9* if the king had had the courage to defend himself At the approach of the legions he took to flight, and the Komans escaped from their perilous position with- out loss. ( l ) At length, the people, feeling the neces- sity of having an eminent man at the head of the army, nominated Paulus ^Emilius consul, who had given many proofs of his military talents in the Cis- alpine. Already the greater part of the Gallo-grseci were in treaty with Perseus. The Illyrians and the people of the Danube offered to second him. The Rhodians, and the King of Pergamus himself, per- suaded that Fortune was going to declare herself for the King of Macedonia, made him offers of alliance ; he chaffered with them with the most inexplicable levity. In the mean time, the Roman army, ably conducted, advanced by forced marches. One single combat terminated the war ; and the battle of Pydna, in 586, once more proved the superiority of the Ro- man legion over the phalanx. This, however, did not yield ingloriously ; and, though abandoned by their king, who fled, the Macedonian hoplites died at their post. When they heard of this defeat, Eumenes and the Rhodians hastened to wipe out the remembrance of their ever having doubted the fortune of Rome ( 2 ) by the swiftness of their repentance. At the same time, L. Anicius conquered Illyria and seized the person of Gentius. Macedonia was divided into four states called free, that is to say, presided over by magis- trates chosen by themselves, but under the protector- ate of the Republic. By the law imposed on these (') Titus Livius, XLI. 5. (") Titus Livius, XLV. 21 et seq. new provinces, all marriages, and all exchange of im- movable property, were interdicted between the citi- zens of different states, ( x ) and the imports reduced one-half. As we see, the Republic applied the sys- tem practised in 416 to dissolve the Latin confeder- acy, and later, in 449, that of the Hernici. Illyria was also divided into three parts. The towns which had first yielded were exempt from all tribute, and the taxes of the others reduced to half. ( 2 ) It is not uninteresting to recall to mind how Livy appreciates the institutions which Macedonia and Il- lyria received at this epoch. "It was decreed," he says, " that liberty should be given to the Macedoni- ans and Illyrians, to prove to the whole universe that, in carrying their arms so far, the object of the Romans was to deliver the enslaved peoples, not to enslave the free peoples; to guarantee to these last their in- dependence, to the nations subject to kings a milder and more just government; and to convince them that, in the wars which might break out between the Republic and their sovereigns, the result would be the liberty of the peoples : Rome reserving to herself only the honour of victory." ( 3 ) Greece, and above all Epirus, sacked by Paulus ^Eniilius, underwent the penalty of defection. As to the Achaean league, the fidelity of which had ap- - peared doubtful, nearly a thousand of the principal (') Titus Livius, XLV. 29. ( 2 ) Titus Livius, XLV. 26. ( 3 ) Titus Livius, XLV. 18. "The laws given to the Macedonians by Paulus JEmilius were so wisely framed, that they seemed to have been made not for vanquished enemies, but for allies whose services it was desired to reward ; and in which, after a long course of years, use, the sole reformer of laws, showed nothing defective." (Titus Livius, XLV. 32.) citizens, guilty or suspected of having favoured the Macedonians, were sent as hostages to Rome. ( J ) XL In carrying her victorious arms through almost Modification of RO- a11 tte Borders of the Mediterranean, the Republic had hitherto obeyed either le- gitimate needs or generous inspirations. Care for her future greatness, for her existence even, made it absolute on her to dispute the empire of the sea with Carthage. Hence the wars, of which Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, Italy, and Africa, by turns, became the theatre. It was also her duty to combat the warlike peoples of the Cisalpine, that she might ensure the safety of her frontiers. As to the expeditions of Macedonia and Asia, Rome had been drawn into them by the conduct of foreign kings, their violation of treaties, their guilty plottings, and their attacks on her allies. To conquer thus became to her an obligation, un- der pain of seeing fall to ruin the edifice which she had built up at the price of so many sacrifices ; and, what is remarkable, she showed herself after victory magnificent towards her allies, clement to the van- quished, and moderate in her pretensions. Leaving to the kings all the glory of the throne, and to the nations their laws and liberties, she had reduced to Roman provinces only a part of Spain, Sicily, Sar- dinia, and Cisalpine Gaul. In Sicily she preserved the most intimate alliance with Hiero, tyrant of Syra- cuse, for fifty years. The constant support of this prince must have shown the Senate how much such alliances were preferable to direct dominion. In (') Polybius, XXX. 10 ; XXXV. G. Spain she augmented the territory of all the chiefs who consented to become her allies. After the bat- tle of Cynoscephalse, as after that of Magnesia, she maintained on their thrones Philip and Antiochus, and imposed on this last only the same conditions as those offered before the victory. If, after the battle of Pydna, she overthrew Perseus, it was because he had openly violated his engagements ; but she gave equitable laws to Macedonia. Justice then ruled her conduct, even towards her oldest rival ; for when Masinissa asked the help of the Senate in his quar- rels with Carthage, he received for answer that, even in his favour, justice could not be sacrificed. (*) In Egypt her protection preserved the crown on the head of Ptolemy Philometor and of his sister Cleopatra. ( 2 ) Finally, when all the kings came after the victory of Pydna to offer their congratulations to the Roman people, and to implore their protection, the Senate regulated their demands with extreme jus- tice. Eumenes, himself an object of suspicion, sent his brother Attains to Rome ; and he, willing to prof- it by the favourable impression he had made, thought to ask for him a part of the kingdom of Pergamus. He was recommended to give up the design. The Senate restored his son to Cotys,king of Thrace, with- out ransom, saying that the Roman people did not make a tramc of their benefits. ( 3 ) Finally, in the (') Titus Livius, XLII. 24. We see by the following passage in Livy that Masinissa feared the justice of the Senate as against his own interest: "If Perseus had had the advantage, and it Carthage had been deprived of the Roman protection, nothing would then have hindered Masinissa from conquering all Africa." (Titus Livius, XLII. 29.) () Titus Livius, XLV. 13. ( 3 ) Titus Livius, XLV. 42. disputes between Prusias, king of Bithynia, and the Gallo-graecians, it declared that justice alone could dictate its decision. (') How, then, did so much nobleness of views, so much magnanimity in success, so much prudence in conduct seem to be belied, dating from that period of twenty-two years which divides the war against Per- sia from the third Punic war? Because too much success dazzles nations as well as kings. When the Romans began to think that nothing could resist them in the future because nothing had resisted them in the past, they believed that all was permitted them. They no longer made war to protect their al- lies, defend their frontiers, or destroy coalitions, but to crush the weak, and use nations for their own prof- it. We must also acknowledge that the inconstancy of the peoples, faithful in appearance, but always plotting some defection, and the hatred of the kings, concealing their resentment under a show of abase- ment, concurred to render the Republic more suspi- cious and more exacting, and caused it to count from henceforth rather on its subjects than on its allies. Vainly did the Senate seek to follow the grand tra- ditions of the past ; it was no longer strong enough to curb individual ambitions; and the same institu- tions which formerly brought forth the virtues, now only protected the vices of aggrandised Rome. The generals dared no longer to obey; thus, the consul Cn. Manlius attacks the Gallo-graecians in Asia with- out the orders of the Senate ; ( 2 ) A. Manlius takes on ( l ) Titus Livius, XLV. 44. (') Titus Livius, XXXVIII. 45. himself to make an expedition into Istria;(') the consul C. Cassius abandons the Cisalpine, his prov- ince, and attempts of his own accord to penetrate into Macedonia by Illyria ; ( 2 ) the praetor Furius, on his own authority, disarms one of the peoples of Cisal- pine Gaul, the Cenomani, at peace with Rome ; ( 3 ) Popilius Lsenas attacks the Statiellates without cause, and sells ten thousand of them ; others also oppress the peoples of Spain. ( 4 ) All these things doubtless incur the blame of the Senate ; the consuls and prae- tors are disavowed, even accused, but their disobedi- ence none the less remain unpunished, and the accu- sations without result. In 599, it is true,L.Lentulus, consul in the preceding year, underwent condemna- tion for exaction, but that did not prevent him from being raised again to the chief honours. ( 5 ) As long as the object was only to form men des- tined for a modest part on a narrow theatre, nothing was better than the annual election of the consuls and praetors, by which, in a certain space of time, a great number of the principal citizens of both the pa- trician and plebeian nobility participated in the high- est offices. Powers thus exercised under the eyes of their fellow-citizens, rather for honour than inter- est, obliged them to be worthy of their trust; but when, leading their legions into the most remote countries, the generals, far from all control, and in- vested with absolute power, enriched themselves by (') Titus Livius, XLI. 7. ( 2 ) Titus Livius, XLIII. 1. ( 3 ) Titus Livius, XXXIX. 3. ( 4 ) "It was commonly said that the masters of the Spanish provinces them- selves opposed the prosecution of noble and powerful persons. " (Titus Livius, XLIII. 2.) ( s ) Valerius Maximus, VI. ix. 10. tlie spoils of the vanquished, dignities were sought merely to furnish them with wealth during their short continuance. The frequent re-election of the magistrates, in multiplying the contests of candidates, multiplied the ambitious, who scrupled at nothing to attain their object. Thus Montesquieu justly ob- serves, that " good laws which have made a small re- public great, become a burden to it when it has in- creased, because their natural effect was to create a grand people, and not to govern it." (') The remedy for this overflowing of unruly passions would have been, on the one hand, to moderate the desire for conquest; on the other, to diminish the number of aspirants to power, by giving them a lon- ger term of duration. But then, the people alone, guided by its instincts, felt the need of remedying this defect in the institution, by retaining in authori- ty those who had their confidence. Thus, they wish- ed to appoint Scipio Africanus perpetual dictator; ( 2 ) while pretended reformers, such as Portius Cato, en- slaved to old customs, and in a spirit of exaggerated rigorism, made laws to interdict the same man from aspiring twice to the consulship, and to advance the age at which it was lawful to try for this high office. All these measures were contrary to the object at which they aimed. In maintaining annual elections, the way was left free to vulgar covetousness ; in ex- cluding youth from high functions, they repressed the impulses of those choice natures which early reveal (') Montesquieu, Grandeur et Decadence des Romains, ix. 66. ( s ) Scipio reproves the people, who wished to make him perpetual consul and dictator. (Titus Livius, XXXVIII. 56.) themselves, and the exceptional elevation of which had so often saved Rome from the greatest disasters. Have we not seen, for example, in 406, Marcus Vale- rius Corvus, raised to the consulate at twenty-three years of age, gain the battle of Mount Gaurus against the feamnites ; Scipio Africanus, nominated proconsul at twenty-four, conquer Spain and humiliate Carthage; the consul Quinctius Flamininus, at thirty, carry off from Philip the victory of Cynoscephalse ? Finally, Scipio ^Emilianus, who is to destroy Carthage, will be elected consul, even before the age fixed by the law of Cato. No doubt, Cato the Censor, honest and incorrupti- ble, had the laudable design of arresting the decline of morals. But, instead of attacking the cause, he only attacked the effect ; instead of strengthening au- thority, he tended to weaken it ; instead of leaving the nations a certain independence, he urged the Sen- ate to bring them all under its absolute dominion; instead of adopting what came from Greece with an enlightened discernment, he indiscriminately con- demned all that was of foreign origin. (*) There was in Cato's austerity more ostentation than real virtue. Thus, during his censorship, he expelled Manlius from the Senate for having kissed his wife before his daugh- ter in open daylight ; he took pleasure in regulating the toilette and extravagance of the Roman ladies ; and, by an exaggerated disinterestedness, he sold his / / <_?eek autonomy. ShlCC the War with SruT'wdu'ced 1 To Persia, the preponderance of Roman in- fluence had maintained order in Achaia ; but on the return of the hostages, in 603, coincident with the troubles of Macedonia, party enmities were re-awakened. Dissensions soon broke out between the Achaean league and the cities of the Peloponnesus, which it coveted, and the resistance of which it did not hesitate to punish by destruction and pillage. Sparta soon rebelled, and Peloponnesus was all in flames. The Romans made vain efforts to allay this general disturbance. The envoys of the Senate car- ried a decree to Corinth, which detached from the league Sparta, Argos, Orchomenus, and Arcadia. On hearing this, the Achaeans massacred the Lacedsemoni- ms then at Corinth, and loaded the Roman commis- 216 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. sioners with insults. (') Before using severity, the Roman Senate resolved to make one appeal to concil- iation; but the words of the new envoys were not listened to. The Achaean league, united with Eubcea and Boeo- tia, then dared to declare war against Rome, which they knew to be occupied in Spain and Africa. The league was soon vanquished at Scarphia, in Locris, by Metellus, and at Leucopetra, near Corinth, by Mum- mius. The towns of the Achaean league were treated rigorously; Corinth was sacked; and Greece, under the name of Achaia, remained in subjection to the Romans (608). ( 2 ) However, Mummius, as Polybius himself avows, ( 3 ) showed as much moderation as disinterestedness after the victory. He preserved in their places the statues of Philopcemen, kept none of the trophies taken in Greece for himself, and remained so poor that the Sen- ate conferred a dowry upon his daughter from the public treasury. About the same time the severity of the Senate had not spared Macedonia. During the last Punic war, a Greek adventurer, Andriscus, pretending to be the son of Perseus, had stirred up the country to rebellion, with an army of Thracians. Driven out of Thessaly by Scipio Nasica, he returned there, slew the praetor Juventius Thalna, and formed an alliance with the Carthaginians. Beaten by Metellus, he was sent to Rome loaded with chains. Some years later, a second impostor having also endeavoured to seize the succes- ( l ) Justin, XXXIV. 1. Titus Livius, Epitome, LI. Polybius, I. 2, 3. ( s ) Pausanias, VII. 1C. Justin, XXXIV. 2. ( 3 ) Polybius, XL. 11. PUNIC WARS AND WARS OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA. 217 sion of Perseus, the Senate reduced Macedonia to a Roman province (612). It was the same with Illyria after the submission of the Ardaei (618). Never had so many triumphs been seen. Scipio JSmilianus had triumphed over Africa, Metellus over Macedonia, Mummius over Achaia, and Fulvius Flaccus over Il- lyria. Delivered henceforth from its troubles in the east and south, the Senate turned its attention towards Spain. This country had never entirely yielded : its strength hardly restored, it took up arms again. Aft' er the pacification which Scipio Africanus and Sem- pronius Gracchus successively induced, new insurrec- tions broke forth ; the Lusitanians, yielding to the in- stigations of Carthage, had revolted in 601, and had gained some advantages over Mummius and his suc- cessor Galba (603). But this last, by an act of infa- mous treachery, massacred thirty thousand prisoners. Prosecuted for this act at Rome by Cato, he was ac- quitted. Subsequently, another consul showed no less perfidy: Licinius Lucullus, having entered the town of Cauca, which had surrendered, slew twenty thousand of its inhabitants, and sold the rest. ( l ) So much cruelty excited the indignation of the peo- ples of Northern Spain, and, as always happens, the national feeling brought forth a hero. Viriathus, who had escaped the massacre of the Lusitanians, ^and from a shepherd had become a general, began a war of par- tisans, and, for five years, having vanquished the Ro- man generals, ended by rousing the Celtiberians. Whilst these occupied Metellus the Macedonian, Fa- (') Appian, Wars of Spain, 52. 10 218 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. bins, left alone against Viriathus, was hemmed into a defile by him, and constrained to accept peace. The murder of Viriathus left the issue of the war no lon- ger doubtful. This death was too advantageous to the Romans not to be imputed to Caepio, successor to his brother Fabius. But when the murderers came to demand the wages of their crime, they were told that the Romans had never approved of the massacre of a general by his soldiers. (') The Lusitanians, however, submitted, and the legions penetrated to the ocean. The war, ended in the west, became concentrated round Numantia, ( 2 ) where, in the course of five years, several consuls were defeated. When, in 616, Manci- nus, surrounded by the enemy on all sides, was re- duced to save his army by a shameful capitulation, like that of the Furculae Caudinse, the Senate refused to ratify the treaty, and gave up the consul loaded with chains. The same fate was reserved for Tiberius Gracchus, his questor, who had guaranteed the treaty ; but, through the favour of the people, he remained at Rome. The Numantines still resisted for a long time with rare energy. The conqueror of Carthage him- self had to go to direct the siege, which required im- mense works ; and yet the town was taken only by famine (621). Spain was overcome, but her spirit of independence survived for a great number of years. Although the fall of the kingdom of Perganms was posterior to the events we have just related, we will (') Eutropius, IV. 7. (*) The town of Garray, in Spain, situated about a league from Soria, on the Duero, is built on the site of ancient Nnmantia. (Mifiano, Diccionario Geoyrd- Jko de Espana.) PUNIC WARS AND WARS OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA. 219 speak of it here because it is the continuation of the system of reducing all peoples to subjection. Attalus III., a monster of cruelty and folly, had, when dying, bequeathed his kingdom to the Koman people, who sent troops to take possession of it ; but a natural son of Eumenes, Aristonicus, raised the inhabitants, and defeated the consul Licinius Crassus, soon avenged by one of his successors. Aristonicus was taken, and the kingdom, pacified, passed by the name of Asia under Roman domination (625). XIV. The more the Republic extended its empire, the more the number of the high func- Summary. . . tions increased, and the more important they became. The consuls, the proconsuls, and the praetors, governed not only foreign countries, but Italy itself. In fact, Appian tells us that the proconsuls exercised their authority in certain countries of the peninsula. ( ! ) The Roman provinces were nine in number: 1. Cisalpine Gaul. 2. Farther Spain. 3. Nearer Spain. 4. Sardinia and Corsica. 5. Sicily. 6. Northern Afri- ca. 7. Illyria. 8. Macedonia and Achaia. 9, Asia. The people appointed yearly two consuls and seven praetors to go and govern these distant countries ; but generally these high offices were attainable only by those who had been questors or ediles. Now, the edileship required a large fortune ; for the ediles were obliged to spend great sums in fetes and public works to please the people. The rich alone could aspire to this first dignity ; consequently, it was only the mem- ( l ) Appian, Civil Wars, V. iv. 38. 220 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. bers of the aristocracy who had a chance of arriving at the elevated position, -where, for one or two years, they were absolute masters of the destinies of vast kingdoms. Thus, the nobility sought to keep these high offices closed against new men. From 535 to 621 eighty-six years nine families alone obtained eighty-three consulships. Still later, twelve members of the family Metellus gained various dignities in less than twelve years (630-642.) (') Nabis, tyrant of Sparta, was right then,, when, addressing the consul Quinctius Flamininus, he said, "With you, it is regard for the pay which determines enlistments into the cavalry and infantry. Power is for a small number ; dependence is the lot of the multitude. Our lawgiver (Lycurgus), on the contrary, did not wish to put all the power into the hands of certain citizens, whose as- sembling together you call the Senate, nor to give a legal pre-eminence to one or two orders." ( 2 ) It is curious to see* a tyrant of Greece give lessons in democracy to a Eoman. In reality, notAvithstand- ing the changes introduced into the comitia, the bear- ing of which is difficult to explain, the nobility pre- served its preponderance, and the habit of addressing the people only after having taken the sense of the Senate, was still persisted in."( 3 ) The Roman govern- ment, always aristocratic, became more oppressive in proportion as the State increased in extent, and it lost in influence what the people of Italy gained in intel- ligence and in legitimate aspirations towards a better future. (') Vclleins Paterctilus, II. 20. (*) Titus Living, XXXIV. 31. ( 3 ) Titus Lirius, XLV. 21. PUNIC WARS AND WARS OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA. 221 Besides, ever since the beginning of the Republic, it had harboured in its breast two opposite parties, the one seeking to extend, the other to restrict, the rights of the people. When the first came into pow- er, all the liberal laws of the past were restored to force; when the second came in, these laws were evaded. Thus we see now the law Valeria, which consecrates appeal to the people, thrice revived ; now the law interdicting the re-election of the consuls be- fore an interval of ten years, promulgated by Genu- cius in 412, ( ! ) and immediately abandoned, renewed in 603, and subsequently restored by Sylla; now the law which threw the freedrnen into the urban tribes, in order to annul their vote, revived at three different epochs ; ( 2 ) now the measures against solicitation, against exactions, against usury, continually put into force ; and finally, the right of election to the sacerdo- tal office by turn, refused or granted to the people. ( 3 ) By the Portian laws of 557 and 559, it was forbidden to strike with rods, or put to death, a Roman citizen, before the people had pronounced upon his doom. And yet Scipio ^Emilianus, to evade this law, caused his auxiliaries to be beaten with sticks and his sol- diers with vine - stalks. ( 4 ) At the beginning of the seventh century, the principle of secret voting was admitted in all elections; in 615, in the elections of ( l ) Titus Livius, VII. 43. (*) In 555, 585, and 639. (Titus Livius, XLV. 15.) Aurelius Victor, Illus- trious Men, Ixii. ( 3 ) The tribune Licinius Crassus proposed, in 609, to transfer to the people the election of the pontiffs, until then nominated by the sacerdotal college. This proposition was adopted only in 650 by the law Domitia, and was anew abolished by Sylla. (*) Titus Livius, Epitome, LVII. 222 HISTORY OF JULIUS OESAR. the magistrates; in 617, for the decision of the peo- ple in judicial condemnations; in 623, in the votes on proposals for laws. Finally, by the institution of per- manent tribunals (qucestiones perpetuce), established from 605, it was sought to remedy the spoliation of the provinces ; but these institutions, successively adopted or abandoned, could not heal the ills of so- ciety. The manly virtues of an intelligent aristocracy had until then maintained the Republic in a state of concord and greatness; its vices were soon to shake it to its foundations. We have just related the principal events of a pe- riod of one hundred and thirty -three years, during which Rome displayed an energy which no nation has ever equalled. On all sides, and almost at the same time, she has passed her natural limits. In the north, she has subdued the Cisalpine Gauls and crossed the Alps ; in the west and south, she has conquered the great islands of the Mediterranean and the greater part of Spain. Carthage, her powerful rival, has ceased to exist. To the east, the coasts of the Adri- atic are colonised ; the Illyrians, the Istrians, the Dal- matians, are subjected; the kingdom of Macedonia has become a tributary province; and the legions have penetrated even to the Danube. ( J ) Farther than this exist only unknown lands, the country of barbarians, too weak yet to cause alarm. Continent- al Greece, her isles, Asia Minor up to Mount Taurus, all this country, the cradle of civilisation, has entered into the Roman empire. The rest of Asia receives her laws and obeys her influence. Egypt, the most pow- (') The expedition against the Scordisck in 619. PUNIC WARS AND WAES OF MACEDONIA AND ASIA. 23 erful of the kingdoms which made part of the heri- tage of Alexander, is -under her tutelage. The Jews implore her alliance. The Mediterranean has become a Roman lake. The Republic vainly seeks an adver- sary worthy of her arms. But if from without no se- rious danger seems to threaten her, within exist great interests not satisfied, and peoples discontented. . ' " ' CHAPTER VI. THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. (621-G76.) I. THE age of disinterestedness and stoic virtues State of the Repub- WaS P aSSed 5 Jt tad laS * ed neal>1 y foU1 * hundred years, and during that period, the antagonism created by divergency of opinions and interests had never led to sanguinary conflicts. The patriotism of the aristocracy and the good sense of the people had prevented this fatal extremity ; but, dating from the first years of the seventh centu- ry, everything had changed} and at every proposal of reform, or desire of power, nothing was seen but sedi- tion, civil wars, massacres, and proscriptions. " The Republic," says Sallust, " owed its greatness to the wise policy of a small number of good citi- zens," ( l ) and we may add that its decline began the day on which their successors ceased to be worthy of those who had gone before them. In fact, most of those who, after the Gracchi, acted a great part, were so selfish and cruel that it is difficult to decide, in the midst of their excesses, which was the representative of the best cause. As long as Carthage existed, like a man who is on his guard before a dangerous rival, Rome showed an anxiety to maintain the purity and wisdom of her an- (') Sallust, Fragm., I. 8. THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 225 cient principles ; but Carthage fallen, Greece subju- gated, the kings of Asia vanquished, the Republic, no longer held by any salutary check, abandoned herself to the excesses of unlimited power. ( J ) Sallust draws the following picture of the state of society : " When, freed from the fear of Carthage, the Romans had leisure to give themselves up to their dissensions, then there sprang up on all sides troubles, seditions, and at last civil wars. A small number of powerful men, whose favour most of the citizens sought by base means, exercised a veritable des- potism under the imposing name, sometimes of the Senate, at other times of the People. The title of good and bad citizen was no longer the reward of what he did for or against his countiy, for all were equally corrupt ; but the more any one was rich, and in a condition to do evil with impunity, provided he supported the present order of things, the more he passed for a man of worth. From this moment, the ancient manners no longer became corrupted gradual- ly as before; but the depravation spread with the rapidity of a torrent, and youth was to such a degree infected by the poison of luxury and avarice, that there came a generation of people of which it was just to say, that they could neither have patrimony nor suffer others to have it. ( 2 ) The aggrandisement of the empire, frequent contact with strangers, the introduction of new principles in philosophy and religion, the immense riches brought (') "Corruption especially had increased, because, Macedonia destroyed, the empire of the world seemed thenceforth assured to Rome." (Polybius, XI. 32.) ( a ) Sallust, Fraym., I. 10. 10* P 226 HISTORY OF JULIUS (LESAR. into Italy by war and commerce, had all concurred in causing a profound deterioration of the national char- acter. There had taken place an exchange of popu- lations, ideas, and customs. On the one hand, the Eo- mans, whether soldiers, traders, or farmers of the rev- enues, in spreading themselves abroad in crowds all over the world, (') had felt their cupidity increase amid the pomp and luxury of the East ; on the other, the foreigners, and especially the Greeks, flowing into Italy, had brought, along with their perfection in the arts, contempt for the ancient institutions. The Eo- mans had undergone an influence w^hich may be com- pared with that which was exercised over the French of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by Italy, then, it is true, superior in intelligence, but perverted in morals. The seduction of vice is irresistible when it presents itself under the form of elegance, wit, and knowledge. As in all epochs of transition, the moral ties were loosened, and the taste for luxury and the unbridled love of money had taken possession of all classes. Two characteristic facts, distant from one another by one hundred and sixty-nine years, bear witness to the difference of morals at the two periods. Cineas, sent by Pyrrhus to Eome, with rich presents, to ob- tain peace, finds nobody open to corruption (474). Struck with the majesty and patriotism of the sena- (') The Romans expatriated themselves to such a degree that, when Mithri- dates began war, and caused all the Roman citizens spread over his states to be massacred in one day, they amounted to 150,000, according to Plutarch (Sylla, xlviii.) ; 80,000 according to Memnon (hi the Bibliotheca of Photius, Codex CCXXIV. 31) and Valerius Maximus (IX. 2, 3). The small town of Cirta, in Africa, could only be defended against Jugurtha by Italiotes. (Sallust, Jugurtha, 26.) THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 227 tors, he compares the Senate to an assembly of kings. Jugurtha, on the contrary, coming to Rome (643) to plead his cause, finds his resources quickly exhausted in buying everybody's conscience, and, full of con- tempt for that great city, exclaims in leaving it : " Ve- nal town, which would soon perish if it could find a purchaser!" (') Society, indeed, was placed, by noteworthy changes, in new conditions : for the populace of the towns had increased, while the agricultural population had di- minished; agriculture had become profoundly modi- fied; the great landed properties had absorbed the little; the number of proletaries and freedmen had increased, and the slaves had taken the place of free labour. The military service was no longer consid- ered by the nobles as the first honour and the first duty. Religion, that fundamental basis of the Re- public, had lost its prestige. And, lastly, the allies were weary of contributing to the greatness of the empire, without participating in the rights of Roman citizens. ( 2 ) There was, as we have seen, two peoples, quite distinct : the people of the allies and subjects, and the people of Rome. The allies were always in a state of inferiority ; their contingents, more consid- erable than those of the metropolis, received only half the pay of the latter, and were subjected to bodily chastisement from which the soldiers of the legions were exempted. Even in the triumphs, their cohorts, ( l ) Sallust, Jugurtha, 35. (") " And Rome refused to admit in the number of her citizens the men by whom she had acquired that greatness of which she was so proud as to despise the peoples of the same blood and of the same origin." (Vclleius Paterculus, IT. 15.) 228 HISTORY OF JULIUS CVESAR. by way of humiliation, followed, in the last rank and in silence, the chariot of the victor. It was natural then that, penetrated with the feelings of their own dignity and the services they had rendered, they should aspire to be treated as equals. The Roman people, properly so named, occupying a limited terri- tory, from Caere to Cumse, preserved all the pride of a privileged class. It was composed of from about three to four hundred thousand citizens, ( T ) divided into thirty-five tribes, of which four only belonged to the town, and the others to the country. In these last, it is true, had been inscribed the inhabitants of the colonies and of several towns of Italy, but the great majority of the Italiotes were deprived of polit- ical rights, and at the very gates of Rome there still remained disinherited cities, such as Tibur, Prseneste, Signia, and Norba. ( 2 ) The richest citizens, in sharing among them the public domain, composed of about two-thirds of the totality of the conquered territory, had finished by getting nearly the whole into their own hands, either by purchase from the small proprietors, or by forci- bly expelling them; and this occurred even beyond the frontiers of Italy. ( 3 ) At a later time, when the Republic, mistress of the basin of the Mediterranean, received, either under the name of contribution, or by 0) See the list of Censuses at Note (*) of page 256. (*) Mommsen, Geschichte Roms, I., p. 785. ( 3 ) The lands taken from the town of Leontium were of the extent of thirty thousand jtigera. They were, in 542, farmed out by the censors ; but at the end of some time, there remained only one citizen of the country among the eighty-four farmers who had installed themselves in them ; all the others be- longed to the Roman nobility. (Mommsen, ii. 75. Cicero, Second Prosecu- tion of Ferns, III. 46 ct seq.) THE GRACCHI, MABIUS, AND SYLLA. 229 exchange, an immense quantity of corn from the most fertile countries, the cultivation of wheat was neglect- ed in Italy, and the fields were converted into pas- tures and sumptuous parks. Meadows, indeed, which required fewer hands, would naturally be preferred by the great proprietors. Not only did the vast do- mains, latif undid, appertain to a small number, but the knights had monopolised all the elements of rich- es of the country. Many had retired from the ranks of the cavalry to become farmers-general (publicani), bankers, and, almost alone, merchants. Formed, over the whole face of the empire, into financial companies, they worked the provinces, and formed a veritable money aristocracy, whose importance was continually increasing, and which, in the political struggles, made the balance incline to the side where it threw its in- fluence. Thus, not only was the wealth of the country in the hands of the patrician and plebeian nobility, but the free men diminished incessantly in numbers in the rural districts. If w r e believe Plutarch, (') there were no longer in Etruria, in 620, any but foreigners for tillers of the soil and herdsmen, and everywhere slaves had multiplied to such a degree, that, in Sicily alone, 200,000 took parfin the revolt of 619. ( 2 ) In 650, the King of Bithynia declared himself unable to furnish a military contingent, because all the young adults had been carried away for slaves by Eoman collectors. ( 3 ) In the great market of Delos, 10,000 (') Plutarch, Tiberius Gracchus, 9. ( 2 ) Diodorus Siculus, Fragments, XXXIV. 3. ( 3 ) Diodcrus Siculus, Fragments, XXXVI., p. 147, cd. Schweighscuser. 230 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. slaves were sold and embarked in one day for It- aiy. O The excessive number of slaves was then a danger to society and a cause of weakness to the State ; ( 2 ) and there was the same inconvenience in regard to the freedmen. Citizens since the time of Servius Tul- lius, but without right of suffrage ; free in fact, but remaining generally attached to their old masters; physicians, artists, grammarians, they were incapable, they and their children, of becoming senators, or of forming part of the college of pontiffs, or of marrying a free woman, or of serving in the legions, unless in case of extreme danger. Sometimes admitted into o the Roman communalty, sometimes rejected; verita- ble mulattoes of ancient times, they participated in two natures, and bore always the stigma of their ori- gin. ( 3 ) Confined to the urban tribes, they had, with the proletaries, augmented that part of the population ( l ) Strabo, XIV. v. 570. ( J ) "Our ancestors feared always the spirit of slavery, even in the case where, born in the field and under the roof of his master, the slave learnt to love him from his birth. But since we count ours by nations, each of which has its manners and gods, or perhaps has no gods, no, this vile and confused as- semblage will never be kept under but by fear." (Tacitus, Annales, XIV. 44.) (') In 442, the censor Appius Claudius Csecus causes the freedmen to be in- scribed in all the tribes, and allows their sons the entrance to the Senate. (Di- odorus Siculus, XX. 36.) In 450 the censor Q. Fabius Rullianus (Maximus) confines them to the four urban tribes (Titus Livius, IX. 46) ; towards 530, other censors opened again all the tribes to them ; in 534, the censors L. ^mil- ius Papus and C. Flaminius re-established the order of 450 (Titus Livius, Epi- tome, XX.); an exception is made in favour of those who have a son of the age of more than five years, or who possess lands of the value of more than 30,000 sestertii (XLV. 15); in 585, the censor Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus expels them from the rustic tribes, where they had been again introduced, and unites them in one sole urban tribe, the Esquiline. (Titus Livius, XLV. 15. Cicero, De Oratore, I. ix. 38.) (639.) "The ./Emilian law permits freedmen to vote in the four urban tribes." (Aurelius Victor, Illustrious Men, 72.) THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 231 of Rome for which the conqueror of Carthage and Numantia often showed a veritable disdain : " Si- lence !" he shouted one day, "you whom Italy does not acknowle4ge for her children ;" and as the noise still continued, he proceeded, " Those whom I caused to be brought here in chains will not frighten me be- cause to-day their bonds have been broken." ( l ) When the people of the town assembled in the Fo- rum without the presence of the rural tribes, which were more independent, they were open to all seduc- tions, and to the most powerful of these the money of the candidates and the distributions of wheat at a reduced price. They were also influenced by the mob of those deprived of political rights, when, crowding the public place, as at the English hustings, they sought, by their cries and gestures, to act on the minds of the citizens. On another hand, proud of the deeds of their ances- tors, the principal families, in possession of the soil and of the power, desired to preserve this double ad- vantage without being obliged to show themselves worthy of it ; they seemed to disdain the severe edu- cation which had made them capable of filling all of- fices, ( 2 ) so that it might be said that there existed then at Rome an aristocracy without nobility, and a democracy without people. There were, then, injustices to redress, exigencies to satisfy, and abuses to repress ; for neither the sumptu- ary laws, nor those against solicitation, nor the meas- (') Valerius Maxim us, 1 VI. 2, 3. Velleius Patcrculus, II. 4. ( a ) "I know Romans who have waited for their elevation to the consulship to begin reading the history of our ancestors and the precepts of the Greeks on military art." (Speech of Marius, Sallust, Jiigwtha, 85.) 232 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. ures against the freedmen, were sufficient to cure the diseases of society. It was necessary, as in the time of Licinius Stolo (378), to have recourse to energetic measures to give more stability to power, confer the right of city on the peoples of Italy, diminish the num- ber of slaves, revise the titles to landed property, dis- tribute to the people the lands illegally acquired, and thus give a new existence to the agricultural class. All the men of eminence saw the evil and sought the remedy. Caius Lselius, among others, the friend of Scipio JEmilianus, and probably at his instigation, entertained the thought of proposing salutary reforms, but was prevented by the fear of raising troubles. (') II. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus alone dared to Tiberius Gracchua ^ a ^ e a courageous initiative. Illustrious by birth, remarkable for his physical ad- vantages as well as eloquence, ( 2 ) he was son of the Gracchus who was twice consul, and of Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio Africanus. ( 3 ) At the age of eighteen, Tiberius had been present, under the orders of his brother-in-law, Scipio JEmilanus, at the ruin of Carthage, and was the first to mount to the assault. ( 4 ) Questor of the Consul Mancinus in Spain, he had con- tributed to the treaty of Numantia. Animated with the love of virtue, ( 5 ) far from being dazzled by the (') Plutarch, Tiberius Gracchus, 8. ( 2 ) " Tiberius Gracchus gcnere, forma, cloqucntia facile princeps." (Florus, III. 14.) ( 3 ) Velleius Paterculus, II. 2. Seneca the Philosopher, De Consolatione, ad Marciam, xvi. (*) Plutarch, Parallel between Ayis and Tiberius Gracchus, iv. ( 5 ) " Pure and just in his views." (Velleius Paterculus, II. 2.) "Anima- ted by the noblest ambition." (Appian, Civil Wars, I. 9.) THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 233 splendour of the moment, he foresaw the dangers of the future, and wished to prevent them while there was still time. At the moment of his elevation to the tribuneship, in 621, he took up again, with the ap- proval of men of eminence and philosophers of most distinction, the project which had been entertained by Scipio ^Emilianus (*) to distribute the public domain among the poor. ( 2 ) The people themselves demand- ed the concession with great outcries, and the walls of Rome were daily covered with inscriptions calling for it. ( 3 ) Tiberius, in a speech to the people, pointed out elo- quently all the germs of destruction in the Roman power, and traced the picture of the deplorable con- dition of the citizens spread over the territory of Ita- ly without an asylum in which to repose their bodies enfeebled by war, after they had shed their blood for their country. He cited revolting examples of the ar- bitrary conduct of certain magistrates, who had caused innocent men to be put to death on the most futile pretexts. (*) He then spoke with contempt of the slaves, of that (') Plutarch, Tib. Gracchus, 9. ( 2 ) u It was at the instigation of the rhetorician Diophanes and the philoso- pher Blossius that he took counsel of the citizens of Rome most distinguished for their reputation and virtues : among others, Crassus, the grand pontiff; Mu- cius Scsevola, the celebrated lawyer, then consul ; and Appius Claudius, his fa- ther-in-law." (Plutarch, Tib! Gracchus, 9.) ( 3 ) Plutarch, Tib. Gracchus, 9. () Aulus Gellius relates two passages from the speech of C. Gracchus, which we think ought rather to be ascribed to Tib. Sempronius Gracchus. In one, he has stated the case of a young noble who caused a peasant to be murdered be- cause he made a joke upon him as he passed in a litter ; in the other, he told the story of a consul who ordered the most considerable men in the town of Teanum to be beaten with rods, because the consul's wife, going to bathe, had found the baths of the town not clean. (Aulus Gellins, X. 3.) 234 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. restless, uncertain class, invading the rural districts, useless for the recruitment of the armies, dangerous to society, as the last insurrection in Sicily clearly proved. He ended by proposing a law, which was simply a re- production of that of Licinius Stolo, that had fallen into 'disuse. Its object was to withdraw from the no- bility a portion of the lands of the domain which they had unjustly seized. No landholder should retain more than five hundred jug era for himself and two hundred and fifty for each of his sons. These lands should belong to them for ever ; the part confiscated should be divided into lots of thirty jug era and farm- ed hereditarily, either to Roman citizens, or to Italiote auxiliaries, on condition of a small rent to the treasu- ry, and with an express prohibition to alienate. The proprietors were to be indemnified for the part of their lands which they so lost. This project, which all the old writers judged to be just and moderate, raised a tempest among the aristocracy. The Senate rejected it, and, when the people were on the point of adopt- ing it. the tribune Octavius, gained over by the rich citizens, (*) opposed to it his inflexible veto. Sudden- ly interrupted in his designs, Tiberius embraced the resolution, as bold as it was contrary to the laws, of obtaining a vote of the tribes to depose the tribune. These having pronounced accordingly, the new law was published, and three triumvirs appointed for car- rying it into execution: they were, Tiberius, his broth- er Caius, and his father-in-law Appius Claudius. Upon another proposition, he obtained a decision that the money left by the King of Pergarnus to the Ro- (') Appian, Civil Wars, I. 12. THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 235 inan people should be employed for the expenses of establishing those who were to receive the lands. (*) The agrarian law had only passed by the assistance of the votes of the country tribes. ( 2 ) Nevertheless, the popular party, in its enthusiasm, carried Tiberius home in triumph, calling him not only the benefactor of one city, but the father of all the peoples of Italy. The possessors of the great domains, struck in their dearest interests, were far from sharing in this joy. Not satisfied with having attempted to carry off the urns at the time the law was voted, they plotted the assassination of Tiberius. ( 3 ) In fact, as Machiavelli says: "Men value riches even more than honours, and the obstinacy of the Roman aristocracy in defending its possessions constrained the people to have recourse to extremities." ( 4 ) The chiefs of the opposition, great landholders, such as the tribune Octavius and Scipio Nasica, attacked in every possible way the author of the law which de- spoiled them, and one day the senator Pompeius went so far as to say that the King of Pergamus had sent Tiberius a robe of purple and the diadem, signs of the tribune's future royalty. ( 5 ) The latter, in self-defence, had recourse to proposals inspired rather by the .de- sire of a vain popularity than the general interest. The struggle became daily more and more embittered, and his friends persuaded him to secure his re-election as tribune, in order that the inviolability of his office ( 1 ) Plutarch, Tib. Gracchus, 16. ( 2 ) Appian, Civil Wars, I. 13. ( 3 ) Plutarch, Tib. Gracchus, 12. ( 4 ) Machiavelli, Discourse on Titus Livius, I. 37. ( s ) Plutarch, Tib. Gracchus, 16. 236 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. might afford a refuge against the attacks of his en- emies. The people was convoked ; but the most sub- stantial support of Tiberius failed him : the country people, retained by the harvest, did not obey the call. (*) Tiberius only sought a reform, and, unknowingly, he had commenced a revolution. But to accomplish this he did not possess all the necessaiy qualities. A singular mixture of gentleness and audacity, he un- chained the tempest, but dared not launch the thun- derbolt. Surrounded by his adherents, he walked to the comitia with more appearance of resignation than assurance. The tribes, assembled in the Capitol, were beginning to give their votes, when the senator Ful- vius Flaccus came to warn Tiberius that, in the meet- ing of the Senate, the rich, surrounded by their slaves, had resolved on his destruction. This information produced a considerable agitation round the tribune, and those at a distance demanding the cause of the tumult, Tiberius raised his hand to his head to ex plain by signs the danger which threatened him. ( 2 ) Then his enemies hurried to the Senate, and, giving their own interpretation to his gesture, denounced him as aiming at the kingly power. The Senate, pre- ceded by the sovereign pontiff, Scipio Nasica, repaired to the Capitol. The mob of Tiberius was dispersed, and he himself was slain, with three hundred of his friends, near the gate of the sacred inclosure. All his partisans were hunted out, and underwent the same fate, and among others Diophanes the rhetorician. (') Appian, Civil Wars, I. 14. (') Plutarch, Tib. Gracchus, 16, 22. THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 237 The man had succumbed, but the cause remained standing, and public opinion forced the Senate to dis- continue its opposition to the execution of the agra- rian law, to substitute for Tiberius, as commissioner for the partition of lands, Publius Crassus, an ally of the Gracchi ; the people commiserated the fate of the victims and cursed the murderers. Scipio Nasica gained nothing by his triumph; to withdraw him from the general resentment he was sent to Asia, where he died miserably. The execution of the law encountered, nevertheless, many obstacles. The limits of the ager puUicus had never been well defined ; few title-deeds existed, and those which could be produced were often unintelli- gible. The value of this property, too, had changed prodigiously. It was necessary to indemnify those who had cleared uncultivated grounds or made im- provements. Most of the lots contained religious buildings and sepulchres. According to the antique notions, it was a sacrilege to give them any other des- tination. The possessors of the ager publicus, sup- ported by the Senate and the equestrian order, made the most of all these difficulties. The Italiotes show- ed no less ardour in protesting against the partition of the lands, knowing well that it would be less fa- vourable to them than to the Romans. The struggles which had preceded had so excited men's passions, that each party, as the opportunity occurred, presented laws the most opposite to each other. At one time, on the motion of the tribune Junius Pennus, it is a question of expelling all for- eigners from Rome (628), in order to deprive the 238 IIISTOHY OF JULIUS CAESAR. party of the people of auxiliaries ; at another, on that of M. Fulvius, the right of city is claimed in favour of the Italiotes (629). This demand leads to dis- turbances : it is rejected, and the Senate, to rid itself of Fulvius, sends him against the Salluvii, who were threatening Massilia. But already the allies them- selves, impatient at seeing their rights incessantly de- spised, were attempting to secure them by force, and the Latin colony of Fregellse revolts first ; but it is soon destroyed utterly 'by the praetor M. Opimius (629). The rigour of this act of repression was cal- culated to intimidate the other towns ; but there are questions which must be resolved, and cannot be put down. The cause which has been vanquished ten years is on the point of finding in the brother of Ti- berius Gracchus a new champion. III. Caius Gracchus, indeed, nourished in his heart, CM Gmcchiw as a sacre( i deposit, the ideas of his broth- er and the desire to revenge him. After serving in twelve campaigns, he returned to Rome to solicit the tribuneship. On his arrival, the nobles trembled, and, to combat his ascendency, they accused him of being concerned in the insurrection of Fregel- las ; but his name 'brought him numerous sympathies. On the day of his election, a vast crowd of citizens arrived in Rome from all parts of Italy, and so great was the confluence that the Campus Martius could not hold them ; and many gave their votes even from the roofs. (*) Invested with the tribunitian power, Gracchus made use of it to submit to the sanction of (') Plutarch, C. Gracchus, 5. THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 239 the people several laws ; some directed merely against the enemies of his brother;^) others, of great politic- al meaning, which require more particular notice. First, the importance of the tribunes was increased by the faculty of being re-elected indefinitely, ( 2 ) which tended to give a character of permanence to functions which were already so preponderant. Next, the law frumentaria, by turn carried into effect and abandoned, ( 3 ) gained him adherents by his granting without distinction, to all the poor citizens, the month- ly distribution of a certain quantity of wheat ; and for this purpose vast public granaries were construct- ed. ( 4 ) The shortening of the time of service of the soldiers, ( 5 ) the prohibition to enrol them under sev- enteen years of age, and the payment by the treasury of their equipment, which was previously deducted from their pay, gained him the favour of the army. The establishment of new tolls (jportoria) augmented the resources of the State ; new colonies were found- ed, ( 6 ) not only in Italy, but in the possessions out of ( l ) They interdicted to the magistrates deposed by the people the exercise of all functions, and authorised criminal proceedings against the magistrate who had been the author of the illegal banishment of a citizen. The first of these struck openly at Octavius, whom Tiberius had deposed ; the second at Popilius, who, in his praetorship, had banished the friends of Tiberius. (Plu- tarch, C. Gracchus, 8.) () Appian, Civil Wars, I. 21. ( 3 ) "In 556, the curule ediles Fulvius Nobilior and Flaminius distributed to the people a million of modii of Sicilian wheat, at two uses the bushel." (Ti- tus Livius, XXXIII. 42.) ( 4 ) Appian, Civil Wars, I. 21. Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, III. 20. ( 5 ) Plutarch, C. Gracchus, 7. According to what Polybius says, the period of service was fixed at ten years, for we read in Plutarch : " Caius Gracchus said to the censors that, obliged only by the law to ten campaigns, he had made twelve." (Plutarch, C. Gracchus, 4.) (') FIFTH PERIOD. ROMAN COLONIES. Dertona (630). In Liguria, now Tortona. 24:0 HISTORY OF JULIUS C.ESAR. the peninsula. (*) The agrarian law, which was con- nected with the establishment of these colonies, was confirmed, probably with the view of restoring to the commissioners charged with its execution their judi- cial powers, which had fallen into disuse. ( 2 ) Long and wide roads, starting from Rome, placed the me- tropolis in easy communication with the different countries of Italy. ( 3 ) Down to this time, the appointments to the prov- inces had taken place after the consular elections, ROMAN COLONIES Continued. Fabrateria (630). Among the Volsci (Latium jlfajus'). Now Falvaterra. A colony of the Gracchi. Aqua: Sextix (631) ; Aix (Mouths of the Rhone). Cited erroneously as a colony, was only a castellum. Minervia (Scylacium) (632). In Calabria, now Squlllace. A colony of ,the Gracchi. Neptunia (Tarcntum) (632). In Calabria, now Toronto. A colony of the Gracchi. Carthago (Junonia). In Africa. A colony of the Gracchi, was only com- menced. Narbo Martins (636). In Narbonnese Gaul, now Narbonne. Founded under the influence of the Gracchi. Eporedia (654). In Transpadane Gaul, now Ivrea. In this period Rome ceases to found Latin colonies. The allied countries and the towns of the Latin name began to demand the right of city ; the as- similation of Italy, in respect to language and manners, is indeed so advanced that it is superfluous, if not dangerous, to found new Latin cities. The name of Colonies of the Gracchi is given to those which were established essentially for the aid of the poor citizens, and no longer, as formerly, with a strategic view. Carthage and Narbonnc are the first two colonies founded beyond the limits of Italy, contrary to the rule previously followed. The only example which could be mentioned as appertaining to the previous period is that of ItaKca, founded in Spain by Scipio in 548, for those of his veterans wKo wished to re- main in the country. They received the right of city, but not the title of col- ony. The inhabitants of Aqua: Sextice must have been in much the same situ- ation. (') Velleius Paterculns, II. 6, 15. Plutarch, C. Gracchus, 7, 8, ( J ) Appian, Civil Wars, I. 19 et seq. (') Plutarch, C. Gracchus, 9. Appian, Civil Wars, I. 23. THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 241 wliicli allowed the Senate to distribute the great commands nearly according to its own convenience ; it was now arranged, in order to defeat the calcu- lations of ambition and cupidity, that the Senate should assign, before the election of the consuls, the provinces which they should administrate. (') To elevate the title of Roman citizen, the dispositions of the law Porcia were put in force again, and it was forbidden not only to pronounce capital punish- ment ( 2 ) on a Roman citizen, except in case of high treason (perditeUw), but even for this offence to apply it without the ratification of the people. It was equivalent to repealing the law of provocation, the principle of which had been inscribed in the laws of the Twelve Tables. C. Gracchus attempted still more in the cause of equality. He proposed to confer the right of city on the allies who enjoyed the Latin law, and even to ex- tend this benefit to all the inhabitants of Italy. ( 3 ) He wished that in the comitia all classes should be admitted without distinction to draw lots for the cen- tury called prcerogativa, or which had precedency in voting ; ( 4 ) this " prerogative" had in fact a great in- fluence, because the suffrage of the first voters was re- garded as a divine presage; but these propositions Avere rejected. Desirous of diminishing the power of the Senate, Gracchus resolved to oppose to it the (') Sallust, Juyvrtha, 27. Cicero, Oration on the .Consular Provinces, 2,15; Oration for Balbus, 27. ( z ) Cicero, Oration for Rabirius, 4. ( 3 ) riutarch, C. Gracchus, 7, 12. According to Velleius Paterculus (II. 6), "he would have extended this right to all the peoples of Italy as far as the Alps." (*) Pseudo-Sallust, First Letter to Ccesar, vii. Titus Livius, XXVI. 22. 11 Q 242 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. knights, whose importance he increased by new attri- butes. He caused a law to be passed which author- ised the censor to let to farm, in Asia, the lands taken from the inhabitants of the conquered towns. (') The knights then took in farm the rents and tithes of those countries, of which the soil belonged of right to the Roman people ; ( 2 ) the old proprietors were re- duced to the condition of simple tenants. Finally, Caius gave the knights a share in the judiciary pow- ers, exercised exclusively by the Senate, the venality of which had excited public contempt. ( 3 ) Three hundred knights were joined with three hundred sen- ators, and the cognisance of all actions at law thus devolved upon six hundred judges. (*) These meas- ures gained for him the good-will of an order which, hostile hitherto to the popular party, had contributed to the failure of the projects of Tiberius Gracchus. The tribune's success was immense ; his popularity became so great that the people surrendered to him the right of naming the three hundred knights among whom the judges were to be chosen, and his simple recommendation was enough to secure the election of Fannius, one of his partisans, to the consulship. De- (*) " Aut censoria locatio constituta est, nt Asia;, lege Sempronia." Cicero, Second Prosecution ofVerres, III. See, on this question, Mommsen, Inscrip- tiones Latince Antiquissimce, pp. 100, 101. ( 2 ) In the province, the domain of the soil belongs to the Roman people ; the proprietor is reputed to have only the possession or usufruct. (Gaius, Institutes, II. 7.) ( J ) The senators were reproached with the recent examples of prevarication given by Cornelius Cotta, by Salinator, and by Manius Aquilius, the conqueror of Asia. ( 4 ) Yet the Epitome of Titus Livius (LX.) speaks of 600 knights instead of 300. (See Pliny, Natural History, XXXIII. 7. Appian, Civil Wars, I. 22. Plutarch, C. Gracchus, 7.) THE GEACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 243 siring further to show his spirit of justice towards the provinces, he sent back to Spain the wheat arbitrarily carried away from the inhabitants by the propraetor Fabius. The tribunes had thus, at that epoch, a ver- itable omnipotence : they had charge of the great works ; disposed of the public revenues ; dictated, so to say, the election of the consuls ; controlled the acts of the governors of provinces ; proposed the laws, and saw to their execution. These measures taken together, from the circum- stance that they were favourable to a great number of interests, calmed for some time the ardour of the opposition, and reduced it to silence. Even the Sen- ate became reconciled in appearance with Caius Grac- chus; but under the surface the feeling of hatred still existed, and another tribune was raised up against him, Livius Drusus, whose mission was to propose measures destined to restore to the Senate the affec- tion of the people. C. Gracchus had designed that the allies enjoying Latin rights should, be admitted to the right of city. Drusus caused it to be declared that, like the Roman citizens, they should no longer be subject to be beaten with rods. According to the law of the Gracchi, the lands distributed to the poor citizens were burdened with a small rent for the profit of the public treasiiry ; Drusus freed them from it. ( J ) In rivalry to the agrarian law, he obtained the crea- tion of twelve colonies of three thousand citizens each. Lastly, it was thought necessary to remove Caius Gracchus himself out of the way, by appoint- ing him to lead to Carthage, to raise it from its ruins, (') Plutarch, C. Graecttus, 12. 244 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. the colony of six thousand individuals, taken from all pails of Italy, (') of which he had obtained the estab- lishment. During his absence, things took an entirely new turn. If, on the. one hand, the measures of Drusus had satisfied a part of the people, on the other, Ful- vius, the friend of Caius, a man of excessive zeal, compromised his cause by dangerous exaggerations. Opimius, the bitter enemy of the Gracchi, offered him- self for the consulship. Informed of these different in- trigues, Caius returned suddenly to Rome to solicit a third renewal of the tribuneship. He failed, while Opimius, elected consul, with the prospect of combat- ing a party so redoubtable to the nobles, caused all citizens who were not Romans to be banished from the town, and, under a religious pretext, attempted to obtain the revocation of the decree relating to the col- ony of Carthage. "When the day of deliberation ar- rived, two parties occupied the Capitol at an early hour. The Senate, in consideration of the gravity of the circumstances and in the interest of the public safety, invested the consul with extraordinary powers, de- claring that it was necessary to exterminate tyrants a treacherous qualification always employed against the defenders of the people, and, in order to make more sure of triumph, they had recourse to foreign troops. The Consul Opimius, at the head of a body of Cretan archers, easily put to the rout a tumultuous assembly. Caius took flight, and, finding himself pur- sued, slew himself. Fulvius underwent a similar fate. ( l ) Appian, Civil Wars, I. 24. THE GRACCHI, MAEIUS, AND SYLLA. 245 The head of the tribune was carried in triumph. Three thousand men were thrown into prison and strangled. The agrarian laws and the emancipation of Italy ceased, for some time, to torment the Senate. Such was the fate of the Gracchi, two men who had at heart to reform the laws of their country, and who fell victims to selfish interests and prejudices still too powerful. " They perished," says Appian, ( J ) " be- cause they employed violence in the execution of an excellent measure." ( 2 ) In fact, in a State where legal forms had been respected for four hundred years, it was necessary either to observe them faithfully, or to have an army at command. Yet the work of the Gracchi did not die with them. Several of their laws continued long to subsist. The agrarian law was executed in part, inasmuch as, at a subsequent period, the nobles bought back the por- tions of lands which had been taken from them, ( 3 ) and its effects were only destroyed at the end of fif- teen years. Implicated in the acts of corruption im- puted to Jugurtha, of which we shall soon have to speak, the Consul Opimius had the same fate as Scipio Nasica, and a no less miserable end. It is cu- rious to see two men, each vanquisher of a sedition, terminate their lives in a foreign land, exposed to the hatred and contempt of their fellow-citizens. Yet the reason is natural: they combated with arms ideas 0) Appian, Civil Wars, 1. 17. (*) "I am not one of those consuls who think that it is a crime to praise in the Gracchi, as magistrates whose counsels, wisdom, and laws carried a salu- tary reform into many parts of the administration." (Cicero, Second Speech on the Agrarian Law, 5.) ( 3 ) Appian, Civil Wars, I. 27. 246 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. which arms could not destroy. When, in the midst of general prosperity, dangerous Utopias spring up, without root in the country, the slightest employment of force extinguishes them; but, on the contrary, when society, deeply tormented by real and imperious needs, requires reform, the success of the most violent repres- sion is but momentaneous : the ideas repressed appear again incessantly, and, like the fabled hydra, for one head struck off a hundred others grow up in its place. IV. An arrogant oligarchy had triumphed in Rome war of Jugurtha over tne popular party i will it have at least the energy to raise again the hon- our of the Roman name abroad ? Such will not be the case : events, of which Africa is on the point of becoming the theatre, will show the baseness of these men who sought to govern the world by repudiating the virtues of their ancestors. Jugurtha, natural son of Mastanabal, king of Nu- midia, by a concubine, had distinguished himself in the Roman legions at the siege of Numantia. Reck- oning on the favour he enjoyed at Rome, he had re- solved to seize the inheritance of Micipsa, to the prej- udice of the two legitimate children, Hiempsal and Adherbal. The first was murdered by his orders, and, in spite of this crime, Jugurtha had succeeded in corrupting the Roman commissioners charged with the task of dividing the kingdom between him and Adherbal, and in obtaining from them the larger part. But soon master of the whole country by force of arms, he put Adherbal to death also. The Senate THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 247 sent against Jugurtha the consul Bestia Calpurnius, who, soon bribed as the commissioners had been, con- cluded a disgraceful peace. So many infamous deeds could not remain in the shade. The .consul, on his return, was attacked by C. Memmius, who, in forcing Jugurtha to come to Rome to give an account of him- self, seized the occasion of reminding his hearers of the grievances of the people and of the scandalous conduct of the nobles, in the following words : ' " After the assassination of Tiberius Gracchus, who, according to the nobles, aspired to the kingly power, the Roman people saw itself exposed to their vigor- ous persecutions. Similarly, after the murder of Caius Gracchus and Marcus Fulvius, how many people of your order have they not caused to be imprisoned? At either of these epochs it was not the law, but their caprice alone, which put an end to the massacres. Moreover, I acknowledge that to restore to the people ilieir rights, is to aspire to the kingly power / and we must regard as legitimate all vengeance obtained by the blood of the citizens In these last years you groaned in secret to see the public treasure wasted, the kings and free people made the tributa- ries of a few nobles of those who alone are in pos- session of splendid dignities and great riches. Never- theless, it is too little for them to be able with impu- nity to commit such crimes ; they have finished by delivering to the enemies of the State your laws, the dignity of your empire, and all that is sacred in the eyes 'of gods and men But who are they, then, those who have invaded the Republic ? Villains covered with blood., devoured by a monstrous cupid- 248 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. ity, the most criminal, and at the same time the most arrogant, of men. For them, good faith, honour, relig- ion, and virtue, are, like vice, objects of traffic. Some have put to death tribunes of the people ; others have commenced unjust proceedings against you ; most of them have shed your blood ; and these excesses are their safeguard: the further they have gone in the course of their crimes, the more they feel themselves in safety. .... Ah ! could you count upon a sincere reconciliation with them ? They seek to rule over you, you seek to be free ; it is their will to op- press you, you resist oppression; lastly, they treat your allies as enemies, your enemies as allies." ( a ) He then reminded his audience of all Jugurtha's crimes. The latter rose to justify himself; but the tribune C. Baebius, with whom he was in league, or- dered the king to keep silence. The Numidian was on the point of gathering the fruit of such an accu- mulation of corruptions, when, having caused a dan- gerous rival, Massiva, the grandson of Masinissa, to be assassinated at Rome, he became the object of public reprobation, and was compelled to return to Africa. War then re-commences; the consul Albums lets it drag on in length. Recalled to Rome to hold the comitia, he entrusts the command to his brother, the propraetor Aulus, whose army, soon seduced by Ju- gurtha, lets itself be surrounded, and is under the ne- cessity of making a dishonourable capitulation. The indignation at Rome is at its height. On the propo- sal of a tribune, an inquiry is opened against all the presumed accomplices in the misdeeds of Jugurtha ; (') Sail ust, Jugurtha, 31. THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 249 they were punished, and, as often happens under such circumstances, the vengeance of the people passed the limits of justice. At last, after warm debates, an hon- ourable man is chosen, Metellus, belonging to .the fac- tion of the nobles, and he is charged with the war in Africa. Public opinion, by forcing the Senate to punish corruption, had triumphed over bad passions ; and " it was the first time," says Sallust, " that the people put a bridle on the tyrannical pride of the no- bility." o V. The Gracchi had made themselves, so to say, the civil champions of the popular cause: Mariua (647). . r . IT Manus became its stern soldier. Uorn of an obscure family, bred in camps, having arrived by his courage at high grades, he had the roughness and the ambition of the class which feels itself op- pressed. A great captain, but a partisan in spirit, naturally inclined to good and to justice, he became, towards the end of his life, through love of power, cruel and inexorable. ( 2 ) After having distinguished himself at the siege of Numantia, he was elected tribune of the people, and displayed in that office a great impartiality. ( 3 ) It w,as the first step of his fortune. Having become the lieutenant of Metellus, in the war against Jugur- (') Sallust, Jugurtha, 5. ( 2 ) " Morius had only made his temper more unyielding." (Plutarch, Syl- la, 39.}" Talent, probity, simplicity, profound knowledge of the art of war, Marias joined to the same degree the contempt of riches and pleasures with the love of glory." (Sallust, 'Jugurtha, 63.) Marius was born on the territory of Arpinum, at Cereatce, now Casamari (the house of Marius). ( 3 ) "Obtained the esteem of both parties." (Plutarch, Marius, 4.) 11* 250 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. tha he sought to supplant his general ; and, at a later period, succeeded in allying himself to an illustrious family by marrying Julia, paternal aunt of the great Caesar. Guided by his instinct or intelligence, he had learnt that beneath the official people there existed a people of proletaries and of allies which demanded a consideration in the State. . Having reached the consulship through his high military reputation, backed by intrigues, he was charged with the war of Numidia, and, before his departure, expressed with energy, in an address to the people, the rancours and principles of the demo- cratic party of that time. "You have charged me," he said, "with the war against Jugurtha; the nobility is irritated at your choice : but why do you not change your decree, by going to seek for this expedition a man among that crowd of nobles, of old lineage, who counts many an- cestors, but not a single campaign ? ... It is true that he would have to take among the people an adviser who could teach him his business. With these proud patricians compare Marius, a new man. What they have heard related by others, what they have read of, I have seen in part, I have in part done. . . . . They reproach me with the obscurity of my birth and fortune; I reproach them with their cowardice and personal infamy. Nature, our common mother, has made all men equal, and the bravest is the most noble. ... If they think they are jus- tified in despising me, let them also despise their an- cestors, ennobled like me by their personal merits. . . . . And is it not more worthy to be oneself THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 251 the author of his name than to degrade that which has been transmitted to you \ " I cannot, to justify your confidence, make a dis- play of images, nor boast of the triumphs or consul- ships of my ancestors ; but I can produce, if neces- sary, javelins, a standard, the trappings of war, twenty other military gifts, besides the scars which furrow my breast. These are my images, these my nobility, not left by inheritance, but won for myself by great personal labours and perils." (f) After this oration, in which is revealed the legiti- mate ardour of those who, in all aristocratic countries, demand equality, Marius, contrary to the ancient sys- tem, enrolled more proletaries than citizens. The veterans also crowded under his standards. He con- ducted the war of Africa with skill; but he was robbed of part of his glory by his questor, P. Corne- lius Sylla. This man, called soon afterwards to play so great a part, sprung from an illustrious patrician family, ambitious, ardent, full of boldness and confi- dence in himself, recoiled before no obstacle. The successes, which cost so many efforts to Marius, seemed to come of themselves to Sylla. Marius defeated the Numidian prince, but, by an adventurous act of bold- ness, Sylla received his submission, and ended the war. From that time began, between the proconsul and his young questor, a rivalry which, in time, was changed into violent hatred. They became, one, the champion of the democracy ; the other, the hope of the oligarchic faction. So the Senate extolled beyond measure Metellus and Sylla, in order that the people (') Sallust, Jugurtha, 85. 252 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. should not consider Marius as the first of the gener- als. ( l ) The gravity of events soon baffled this ma- noeuvre. While Marius was concluding the war with Jugur- tha, a great danger threatened Italy. Since 641, an immense migration of barbarians had moved through Illyria into Cisalpine Gaul, and had defeated, at No- reia (in Carniola) the consul Papirius Carbo. They were the Cimbri, and all their peculiarities, manners, language, habits of pillage, and adventures, attested their relationship to the Gauls. ( 2 ) In their passage through Rhsetia into the country of the Helvetii, they dragged with them different peoples, and during some years devastated Gaul; returned in 645 to the neigh- bourhood of the Roman province, they demanded of the Republic lands to settle in. The consular army sent to meet them was defeated, and they invaded the province itself. The Tigurini (647), a people of Helvetia, issuing from their mountains, slew the con- sul L. Cassius, and made his army pass under the yoke. It was only a prelude to greater disasters. A third invasion of the Cimbri, followed by two new defeats in 649, on the banks of the Rhine, excites the keenest apprehensions, and points to Marius as the only man capable of saving Italy ; the nobles, more- over, in presence of this great danger, sought no lon- ger to seize the power. ( 3 ) Marius was, contrary to the law, named a second time consul, in 650, and charged with the war in Gaul. This great captain laboured during several years (') Plutarch, Marius, 10. (*) Plutarch, Marius, 19. ( s ) Plutarch, Marius, 11. THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 253 to restore military discipline, practise his troops, and familiarise them with their new enemies, whose aspect filled them with terror Marius, considered indis- pensable, was re-elected from year to year; from 650 to 654, he was five times elected consul, and beat the Cimbri, united with the Ambrones and Teutones, near Aquae Sextise (Aix), re-passed into Italy, and ex- terminated, near Vercellae, the Cimbri who had es- caped from the last battle and those whom the Celti- berians had driven back from Spain. These immense butcheries, these massacres of whole peoples, removed for some time the barbarians from the frontiers of the Republic. Consul for the sixth time (654), the saviour of Rome and Italy, by a generous deference, would not triumph without his colleague Catulus, (*) and did not hesitate to exceed his powers in granting to two auxiliary cohorts of Cameria, who had distinguished themselves, the rights of city. ( 2 ) But his glory was obscured by culpable intrigues. Associated with the most turbulent chiefs of the democratic party, he ex- cited them to revolt, and sacrificed them as soon as he saw that they could not succeed. When govern- ments repulse the legitimate wishes of the people and true ideas, then factious men seize on them as a powerful arm to serve their passions and personal in- terests; the Senate having rejected all the proposals of reform, those who sought to raise disorders found in them a pretext and support in their perverse proj- ects. L. Appuleius Saturninus, one of Marius's crea- tures, and Glaucia, a fellow of loose manners, were (') Plutarch, Marius, 28. ( 2 ) Plutarch, Marius, 29. 254 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. guilty of incredible violences. The first revived the agrarian laws of the Gracchi, and went beyond them in proposing the partition of the lands taken from the Cimbri; a measure which he sought to impose by terror and murder. In the troubles which broke out at the election of the consuls for 655, the urban tribes came to blows with the country tribes. In the midst of the tumult, Saturninus, followed by a troop of desperadoes, made himself master of the Cap- itol, and fortified himself in it Charged, in his qual- ity of consul, with the repression of sedition, Marius first favoured it by an intentional inaction ; then, see- ing all good citizens run to arms, and the factious without support, even deserted by the urban ple- beians, he placed himself at the head of some troops, and occupied the avenues to the Capitol. From the first moment of the attack, the rebels threw down their arms and demanded quarter. Marius left them to be massacred by the people, as though he had wished that the secret of the sedition might die with them. The question of Italian emancipation was not for- eign to the revolt of Saturninus. It is certain that the claims of the Italiotes, rejected after the death of C. Gracchus, and then adjourned at the approach of the Cimbri, who threatened all the peninsula with one common catastrophe, were renewed with more earn- estness than ever after the defeat of the barbarians. The earnestness of the allies to come to the succour of Italy, the courage which they had shown in the bat- tle-fields of Aquae Sextiae and Vercellae, gave them new claims to become Romans. Yet, if some prudent THE GHACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 255 politicians believed that the time was arrived for yielding to the wishes of the Italiotes, a numerous and powerful party revolted at the idea of such a con- cession. The more the privileges of the citizens be- came extended, the more the Roman pride resisted the thought of having sharers in them. M. Livius Drusus (663), tribune of the people, son of the Drusus already mentioned, having under his command in Rome an immense body of clients, the acknowledged patron of all the Italiote cities, dared to attempt this salutary reform, and had nearly carried it by force of party. He was not ignorant that there was already in exist- ence a formidable confederacy of the peoples of the south and east of Italy, and that more than once their chiefs had meditated a general insurrection. Drusus, trusting in their projects, had had the art to restrain them and to obtain from them the promise of a blind obedience. The success of the tribune seemed cer- tain. The people were gained over by distributions of wheat and concessions of lands ; the Senate, intimi- dated, appeared to have become powerless, when, a few days before the vote of the tribes, Drusus was assassinated. All Italy accused the senators of this crime, and war became inevitable. The obstinate refusal of the Romans to share with the Italiotes all their political rights, had been long a cause of political agitation. More than two hundred years before, the war of the Latins and the revolt of the inhabitants of Campania, after the battle of Can- nae, had no other motives. About the same time (536), Spurius Carvilius proposed to admit into the Senate two senators taken from each people in Lati- 256 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJBSAK. um. " The assembly," says Livy, (') " burst into a murmur of indignation, and Manlius, raising his voice over the others, declared that there existed still a de- scendant of that consul who once, in the Capitol, threatened to kill with his own hand the first Latin he should see in the curia ;" a striking proof of this secu- lar resistance of the Roman aristocracy to everything which might threaten its supremacy. But, after this epoch, the ideas of equality had assumed a power which it was impossible to mistake. VI. This civil war, which was called the War of wars of the Ames ^ Allies, ( 2 ) showed once more the im- potence of material force against the le- gitimate aspirations of peoples, and it covered the country with blood and ruins. Three hundred thou- sand citizens, the choice of the nation, perished on the field of battle. ( 3 ) Rome had the superiority, it is true, and yet it was the cause of the vanquished which triumphed, since, after the war, the only object of which was the assertion of the rights of citizenship, these rights were granted to most of the peoples of Italy. Sylla subsequently restricted them, and we may be convinced, by examining the different cen- suses, that the entire emancipation was only accom- plished under Caesar. ( 4 ) (') Titus Livus, XXIII. 22. ( s ) In our opinion, bellum sociale, or sociorum, has been wrongly translated by "social war," an expression which gives a meaning entirely contrary to the nature of this war. ( 3 ) Velleius Paterculus, II. 15. (*) LIST OF THE DIFFERENT CENSUSES : 187. 80,000. The first census under Scrvius Tullius. (Titus Livius, I. 44 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 22. Eutropius, I. 7.) THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 257 The revolt "burst out fortuitously before the day LIST OF THE DIFFERENT CENSUSES Continued. Census. Year of Rome. 245. 130,000. 278. 110,000. 280. 190,000. (Towards 28G). 8,714. 295. 117,319. 331. 120,000. 305. 152,573. 415. 165,000. 422% to [-250,000. 435) 4GO. 262,321. 465. 272,000. 474. 287,222. 479. 292,334. 489. 502. 507. 513. 534. 546. 382,234. 297,797. 241,212. 260,000. 270,213. 137,108. 550. 214,000. (Plutarch, Publicola, 14.) (Upwards of). (Dionysius of Halicarnassns, IX. 25.) 119,309 according to Eutropius, I. 14 ; and 120,000 ac- cording to G. Syncellus, 452, ed. Bonn. (Rather more than). (Dionysius of Halicarnassns, IX. 36.) (sic.) (Titus Livius, Epitome, III., ed. O. Jahn.) Correct it to 118,714. (Titus Livius, III. 24.) 117,219 according to the Epitome. (Canon of Eusebius, Olympiad Ixxxix. 2 ; 115,000 according to another manuscript.) This passage is wanting in the Armenian translation. (Pliny, Natural History, XXXIII. 16, ed. Sillig.) (Eusebins, Olymp. ex. 1.) (Titus Livius, IX. 19. G. Syncellus, Chronographia, 525, has the number 260,000.) (Titus Livius, X. 47; the Epitome, 272,320. Eusebius> Olymp. cxxi. 4, writes 270,000 ; the Armenian translator, 220,000.) (Titus Livius, Epitome, XI.) (Titus Livius, Epitome, XIII.) (Eutropius, II. 10.) 271,234 according to Titus Livius (Epitome, XIV.). (Titus Livius, Epitome, XVI.) Correct it to 282,234. (Titus Livius, Epitome, XVIII.) (Titus Livius, Epitome, XIX.) (Eusebius, Olymp. cxxxiv. 4.) (Titus- Livius, Epitome, XX.) (Titus Livius, XXII. 36.) This enormous difference is wrong- ly ascribed to the losses experienced in the first five years of the Second Punic war, and Titus Livius states but a very small difference, minor aliquanto numerus quam qui ante bel- lumfuerat, which would give us cause to believe in an er- ror of the copyist in the number of the census, so that we should read 237,108. (Titus Livius, XXIX. 37 ; Fasti Capitolini.^THie censors, as is formally stated, had extended their operations to the armies ; in addition to which, many allies and Latins had come to take their domicile in Rome, and had been included in the census. R 258 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. fixed. It was provoked by the violence of a Roman magistrate, who was massacred by the inhabitants of Asculuin ; but all was ready for an insurrection, which 561. 143,704. 566. 576. 258,318. 288,294. 581. 269,015. LIST OF THE DIFFERENT CENSUSES Continued. (Titus Livius, XXXV. 9.) Here, also, there doubtless exists an error ; we must read 243, 704. Perhaps, too, the cen- sors did not include in that number of citizens the soldiers in campaign. (Titus Livius, XXXVIII. 36) ; Epitome, 258,310. Many al- lies of the Latin name had been included in the census. (Titus Livius, Epitome, XLI.) The figures of the census of preceding and following years lead us to adopt this num- ber, though the manuscripts give only 258,294. (Titus Livius, XLII. 10); Epitome, 267,231. "The reason of the inferiority of the census of 581 was," according to Titus Livius, "the edict of the Consul Postumius, in virtue of which those who belonged to the class of the Latin allies were to return, to be taken for their censuses, in their re- spective towns, according to the edict of the Consul C. Clau- dius, so that there was not a single person of the allies who was taken at Rome." (Titus Livius, XLII. 10.) (Titus Livius, Epitome, XLV.) (Titus Livius, Epitome, XLVI.) (Titus Livius, Epitome, XLVII.) (Titus Livius, Epitome, XL VIII.) (Eusebius, Olymp. clviii. 3.) (Titus Livius, Epitome, LIV.) (Titus Livius, Epitome, LVI.) (Titus Livius, Epitome, LIX.) (Titus Livius, Epitome, LX.) (Titus Livius, Epitome, LXIII.) (Eusebius, Olymp. clxxiv. 1.) , (Titus Livius, Epitome, XCVIH.) Dio Cassius (XTJII. 25) relates that the census ordered by Caesar after the civil war had presented a frightful diminution of the number of the population (ditvr) 6\iyavOpoiria*). Appian (II. 102) says that this number had only reached about the half of the previous census. According to Plutarch ( Cccsar, 55), upon 320,000 citizens counted before the war, Caesar had only found 150,000. They confounded the registers of the dis- tribution of wheat with the lists of the census. (See Sue- tonius, Ccesar, 41.) 586. 312,805. 591. 337,022. 595. 323,316. 600. 324,000. 608. 334,000. 613. 327,442. 618. 317,933. 623. 318,823. 629. 394,726. 639. "394,336. 667. 463,000. 684. 900,000. V THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 259 was not long before it became general. The allies had a secret government, chiefs appointed, and an army organised. At the head of the peoples confed- erated against Rome were distinguished the Marsi and the Samnites ; the first excited rather by a feel- ing of national pride than by the memory of injuries to be revenged ; the second, on the contrary, by the hatred which they had vowed against the Romans during long struggles for their independence strug- gles renewed on the invasion of Hannibal. Both shared the honour of the supreme command. It ap- pears, moreover, that the system of government adopt- ed by the confederation was a copy of the Roman in- stitutions. To substitute Italy for Rome, and to re- place the denomination of a single town by that of a great people, was the avowed aim of the new league. A Senate was named, or rather a Diet, in which each city had its representatives ; they elected two consuls, Q. Pompsedius Silo, a Marsian, and C. Papius Mutilus, a Samnite. For their capital, they chose Cornnium, LIST OF THE DIFFERENT CENSUSES Continued. Y S f ^UBU, Augustus says expressly that between the years 684 and 726 there was no census taken, post annum alterum et qitad- ragesimum. (Monument of Ancyra, tab. 2.) The number of citizens whom he found at that epoch, 4,063,000, is about that which Caesar might have declared. (Photius, Biblioth., cod. xcvii. Fragm. Histor., ed. Miiller, III. 606.) 726. 4,063,000. Closing of the lustrum by Augustus on his sixth consulship, with M. Agrippa for his colleague. (Monument of Ancyra.} 746. 4,233,000. Second closure of the lustrum by Augustus alone. (Monu- ment of Ancyra.) 767. 4,037,000. According to the Monument of Ancyra ; 9,300,000 accord- ing to the Chronicle of Evsebius ; third closure of the lus- trum by Augustus and Tiberius Caesar, his colleague, under the consulate of Sex. Pompeius and Sex. Appuleius. 260 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. the name of which was changed to that of Italia, or Vitelia, which, in the Oscan language, spoken by a part of the peoples of Southern Italy, had the same signification. (*) The allies were wanting neither in skilful generals nor in brave and experienced soldiers; in the two camps, the same arms, the same discipline. The war, commenced at the end of the year 663, was pursued on both sides with the utmost animosity. It extend- ed through Central Italy, from the north to the south, from Firmum (JFermo) to Grumentum, in Lucania, and from east to west from Cannae to the Liris. The battles were sanguinary, and often indecisive, and, on both sides, the losses were so considerable, that it soon became necessary to enrol the freedmen, and even the slaves. The allies obtained at first brilliant successes. Ma- rius had the glory of arresting their progress, al- though he had only troops demoralised by reverses. Fortune, this time again, served Sylla better; con- queror wherever he appeared, he sullied his exploits by horrible cruelties to the Samnites, whom he seem- ed to have undertaken to destroy rather than to sub- due. The Senate displayed more humanity, or more policy, in granting spontaneously the right of Roman city to all the allies who remained faithful to the Re- public, and in promising it to all those who should lay down their arms. It treated in the same manner the Cisalpine Gauls; as to their neighbours on the (') These two words are found on the Italiote medals struck during the war. A denarius in the Bibliotheque Impe'riale presents the legend ITALIA in Latin characters, and, on the reverse, the name of Papius Mutilus in Oscan characters: >. h T7 N N FT > Gai, PAAPI+ G (aijilt). THE GKACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 261 left bank of the Po, it conferred upon them the right of Latium. This wise measure divided the confeder- ates ; ( ! ) the greater part submitted. The Samnites, almost alone, continued to fight in their mountains with the fury of despair. The emancipation of Italy was accompanied, nevertheless, with a restrictive meas- ure which was designed to preserve to the Romans the preponderance in the comitia. To the thirty-five old tribes, eight new ones were added, in which all the Italiotes were inscribed ; and, as the votes were reckoned by tribes, and not by head, it is evident that the influence of the new citizens must have been nearly null. ( 2 ) Etruria had taken no part in the Social War. The nobility was devoted to Rome, and the people lived in a condition approximating to bondage. The law Julia, which gave to the Italiotes the right of Roman city, and which took its name from its author, the consul L. Julius Csesar, produced among the Etrus- cans a complete revolution. It was welcomed with enthusiasm. While Italy was in flames, Mithridates VI., king of Pontus, determined to take advantage of the weak- ness of the Republic to aggrandise himself. In 664, he invaded Bithynia and Cappadocia, and expelled the kings, allies of Rome. At the same time he entered into communication with the Samnites, to whom he promised subsidies and soldiers. Such was the ha- tred then inspired by the Romans in foreign coun- tries, that an order of Mithridates was sufficient to (') This measure satisfied the Etruscans. (Appian, Civil Wars, I. 49.) ( 5 ) Velleius Paterculus, II. 20. Appian, Civil Wars, I. 49. 262 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^SAR. raise the province of Asia, where, in one day, eighty thousand Komans were massacred. (') At this time the Social War was already approaching its end. With the exception -of Samnium, all Italy was sub- dued, and the Senate could turn its attention to the distant provinces. VII. Sylla, appointed consul in recompense for his services, was charged with the task of chastising Mithridates. While he was preparing for this mission, the tribune of the people, P. Sulpicius, had formed a powerful party. A remark- able man, though without scruples, he had the quali- ties and the defects of most of those who played a part in these epochs of dissension. ( 2 ) Escorted by six hundred Roman knights, whom he called the Anti- Senate, ( 3 ) he sold publicly the right of citizen to freedmen and foreigners, and received the price on ta- bles raised in the middle of the public place. ( 4 ) He caused a plebiscitum to be passed to put an end to the subterfuge of the law Julia, which, by an illusory re-partition, cheated the Italiotes of the veiy rights which it seemed to accord to them ; and instead of maintaining them in the eight new tribes, he caused them to be inscribed in the thirty -five old ones. The measure was not adopted without warm discussions ; but Sulpicius was supported by all the new citizens, (') See Note (') to page 226. ( 2 ) " P. Snlpicins had sought by his rectitude the popular esteem : his elo- quence, his activity, his mental superiority, and his fortune, made of him a re- markable man." (Velleius Paterculus, II. 18.) ( 3 ) Plutarch, Mantis, 36. ( 4 ) Plutarch, Sylla, 11. THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 263 together with, the democratic faction and Marius. A riot earned the vote, and Sylla, threatened with death, was obliged to take refuge in the house of Marius, and hastily quit Rome. Master of the town, Sulpici- us showed the influences he obeyed, by causing to be given to the aged Marius the province of Asia, and the command of the expedition against Mithridates. But Sylla had his army in Campania, and was de- termined to support his own claims. While the fac- tion of Marius, in the town, indulged in acts of vio- lence against the contrary faction, the soldiers of Sylla were irritated at seeing the legions of his rival iikely to snatch from them the rich booty which Asia prom- ised; and they swore to avenge their chief. Sylla placed himself at their head, and marched from Nola upon Rome, with his colleague, Pompeius Rufus, who had just joined him. The greater part of the superi- or officers dared not follow him, so great was still the prestige of the eternal city. (') In vain deputations are addressed to him ; he marches onwards, and pen- etrates into the streets of Rome. Assailed by the in- habitants, and attacked by Marius and Sulpicius, he triumphs only by dint of boldness and energy. It was the first time that a general, entering Rome as a conqueror, had seized the power by force of arms. Sylla restored order, prevented pillage, convoked the assembly of the people, justified his conduct, and, wishing to secure for his party the preponderance in the public deliberations, he recalled to force the old custom of requiring the previous assent of the Senate before the presentation of a law. The comitia by O Appian, Civil Wars, I. 57. 264 HISTORY OF JULIUS OffiSAR. centuries were substituted for the comitia by tribes, to which was left only the election of the inferior magistrates. (*) Sylla caused Sulpicius to be put to death, and abrogated his decrees ; and he set a price on the head of Marius, forgetting that he had himself, a short time before, found a refuge in the house of his rival. He proscribed the chiefs of the democratic fac- tion, but most of them had fled before he entered Rome. Marius and his son had reached Africa through a thousand dangers. This revolution appears not to have been sanguinary, and, with the exception of Sul- picius, the historians of the time mention no consider- able person as having been put to death. The terror inspired at first by Sylla, lasted no long time. Rep- robation of his acts was shown both in the Senate and among the people, who seized every opportunity to mark their discontent. Sylla was to resume the command of the army of Asia, and that of the army of Italy had fallen to Pompeius. The massacre of this latter by his own soldiers made the future dicta- tor feel how insecure was his power ; he sought to put a stop to the opposition to which he was exposed by accepting as a candidate at the consular comitia TJ. Cornelius Cinna, a known partisan of Marius, tak- ing care, however, to exact from him a solemn oath of fidelity. But Cinna, once elected, held none of his en- gagements, and the other consul, Cn. Octavius, had neither the authority nor the energy necessary to bal- ance the influence of his colleague. (') Appian, Civil Wars, I. 59. " Populus Romanus, Lucio Sylla dictatore ferontp, coinitiis ccnturiatis, municipiu civitatem ademit." (Cicero, Speech/or his House, 30.) THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 265 Sylla, after presiding at the consular comitia, went in all haste to Capua to take the command of his troops, whom he led into Greece against the lieuten- ants of Mithridates. Cinna determined to execute the law of Sulpicius, which assimilated the new citizens to the' old ones;^) he demanded at the same time the return of the exiles, and made an appeal to the slaves. Immediately the Senate, and even the tri- bunes of the people, pronounced against him. He was declared deposed from the consulate. " A mer- ited disgrace," says Paterculus, "but a dangerous prec- edent." ( 2 ) Driven from Rome, he hurried to Nola to demand an asylum of the Samnites, who were still in arms. Thence he went to sound the temper of the Roman army employed to observe Samnium, and, once assured of the dispositions of the soldiers in his favour, he penetrated into their camp, demanding pro- tection against his enemies. His speeches and prom- ises seduced the legions: they chose Cinna for their chief by acclamation, and followed him without hesi- tating. Meanwhile two lieutenants of Marius, Q. Ser- torius and Cn. Papirius Carbo, both exiled by Sylla, proceeded to levy troops in the north of Italy ; and the aged Marius landed in Etruria, where his presence was immediately followed by an insurrection. The (') "In conferring upon the peoples of Italy the right of Roman city, they had been distributed into eight tribes, in order that the strength and number of these new citizens might not encroach upon the dignity of the old ones, and that men admitted to this favour might not become more powerful than those who had given it to them. But Cinna, following in the steps of Marius and Sulpicius, announced that he should distribute them in all the tribes ; and, on this promise, they arrived in crowds from all parts of Italy." (Velleius Pater- culus, 11.20.) ( 2 ) Velleius Paterculus, II. 20. 12 266 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^iSAK. Etruscan peasants accused the Senate as the cause of all their sufferings ; and the enemy of the nobles and the rich appeared to them as an avenger sent by the gods. In ranging themselves under his banner, they believed that they were on the way with him to the pillage of the eternal city. War was on the point of re-commencing, and this time Romans and Italiotes marched united against Rome. From the north, Marius, Sertorius, and Carbo were advancing with considerable forces. Cinna, mas- ter of Campania, was penetrating into Latium, while a Samnite army invaded it on the other side. To these five armies the Senate could oppose but one ; that of Cn. Pompeius Strabo, an able general, but an intriguing politician, who hoped to raise himself un- der favour of the disorder. Quitting his cantonments in Apulia, he had arrived, by forced marches, under the walls of Rome, seeking either to sell his services to the Senate or to effect a conciliation with Marius. He soon saw that the insurgents were strong enough to do without him. His soldiers, raised in the Pice- num and in the country of the Marsi, refused to fight for the Senate against their old confederates, and would have abandoned their general but for the cour- age and presence of mind of his son, a youth of twen- ty years of age, the same who subsequently was the great Pompey. One day the legionaries, snatching their ensigns, threatened to desert in mass: young Pompey laid himself across the gateway of the camp, and challenged them to pass over his body. (') Death delivered Pompeius Strabo from the shame of being (') Plutarch, Pompeius, 3. THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 267 present at an inevitable catastrophe. According to some authors, he sank under the attacks of an epidem- ic disease; according to others, he was struck by light- ning in the very midst of his camp. Deprived of its chief, his army passed over to the enemy ; the Senate was without defenders, and the populace rose against it : Rome opened her gates to Cinna and Marius. The conquerors were without pity in putting to death, often with refinements in cruelty unknown to the Romans, the partisans of the aristocratic faction who had fallen into their hands. During several days, the slaves, whom Cinna had restored to liberty, gave themselves up to every excess. Sertorius, the only one of the chiefs of the democratic party who had some feelings of justice, made an example of these wretches, and massacred nearly four thousand of them. ( a ) Marius and Cinna had proclaimed, as they ad- vanced upon Rome in arms, that their aim was to as- sure to the Italiotes the entire enjoyment of the rights of Roman city ; they declared themselves both con- suls for the year 668. Their power was too consid- erable to be contested, for the new citizens furnished them with a contingent of thirty legions, or about 150,000 men. ( 2 ) Marius died suddenly thirteen days after entering upon office, and the democratic party lost in him the only man who still preserved his pres- tige. A fact which arose out of his funeral, paints (') Plutarch, Sertorius, 5. ( 2 ) " Cinna counted on that great multitude of new Romans, who furnished him with more than three hundred cohorts, divided into thirty legions. To give the necessary credit and authority to his faction, he recalled the two Marii and the other exiles.'' (Velleius Paterculus, II. 20.) 268 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^SAR. the manners of the epoch, and the character of the revolution which had just been effected. An extra- ordinary sacrifice was wanted for his tomb : the pon- tiff Q. Mucius Scsevola, one of the most respectable old men of the nobility, was chosen as the victim. Conducted in pomp before the funeral pile of the con- queror of the Cimbri, he was struck by the sacrificer, who, with an inexperienced hand, plunged the knife into his throat without killing him. Kestored to life, Scsevola was cited in judgment, by a tribune of the people, for not having received the \>\ow fairly. (') While Rome and all Italy were plunged in this fearful anarchy, Sylla drove out of Greece the gener- als of Mithridates VI., and gained two great battles at Chseronea (668) and Orchomenus (669). He was still in Boeotia, when Valerius Flaccus, sent by Cinna to replace him, landed in Greece, penetrated into Thessaly, and thence passed into Asia. Sylla fol- lowed him thither immediately, in haste to conclude with the King of Pontus an arrangement which would enable him to lead his army back into Italy. Cir- cumstances were favourable. Mithridates had need to repair his losses, and he found himself in presence of a new enemy, the lieutenant of Valerius Flaccus, the fierce Flavius Fimbria, who, having by the mur- der of his general become head of the army of Asia, had seized upon Pergamus. Mithridates subscribed to the conditions imposed by Sylla ; he restored all the provinces of which he had taken possession, and C 1 ) Quod parcius telttm recepisset. This expression appears to be borrowed from the combats of gladiators, which derived their origin from similar human sacrifices performed at the funcrdls. (See Cicero, Speech for Roscius Ameri- nus, 12. Valerius Maximus, IX. xi. 2.) THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 269 gave plate and money. Sylla then advanced into Lydia against Fimbria; but the latter, at the ap- proach of the victor of Chseronea, could not restrain his soldiers. His whole army disbanded and passed over to Sylla. Threatened by his rival, the murderer of Flaccus was driven to slay himself. Nothing now stood in the way of Sylla's projects on Italy, and he prepared to make his enemies at Rome pay dearly for their temporary triumph. At the moment of setting sail, he wrote to the Senate to announce the conclu- sion of the war in Asia, and his own speedy return. Three years, he said, had been sufficient to enable him to re-unite with the Roman empire Greece, Macedo- nia, Ionia, and Asia, and to shut up Mithridates with- in the limits of his old possessions ; he was the first Roman who received an embassy from the King of the Parthians. (*) He complained of the violence ex- ercised against his friends and his wife, who had fled with a crowd of fugitives to seek an asylum in his camp. ( 2 ) He added, without vain threats, his inten- tion to restore order by force of arms ; but he prom- ised not to repeal the great measure of the emancipa- tion of Italy, and ended by declaring that the good citizens, new as well as old, had nothing to fear from him. This letter, which the Senate ventured to receive, re- doubled the fury of the men who had succeeded Ma- rius. Blood flowed again. Cinna, who caused him- self to be re-elected consul for the fourth time, and Cn. Papirius Carbo, his colleague, collecting in haste numerous troops, but ill disciplined, prepared to do ( l ) Plutarch, Sylla, 6. ( 2 ) Appian, Civil Wars, I. 77. 270 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. their best to make head against the storm which was approaching. Persuaded that Sylla would proceed along the Adriatic to invade Italy from the north, Cinna had collected at Ancona a considerable army, with the design of surprising him in the midst of his march, and attacking him either in Epirus or Illyria. But his soldiers, Italiotes in great part, encouraged by the promises of Sylla, and, moreover, full of con- tempt for their own general, said openly that they would not pass the sea. Cinna attempted to make an example of some of the mutineers. A revolt broke out, and he was massacred. To avoid a similar lot, Carbo, who came to take the command, hastened to promise the rebels that they should not quit Italy. Sylla landed at Brundusiuni, in 671, at the head of an army of forty thousand men, composed of five le- gions, six thousand cavalry, and contingents from Pel- oponnesus and Macedonia. The fleet numbered six- teen hundred vessels. (') He followed the Appian Way, and reached Campania after a single battle, fought not far from Canusium. ( 2 ) He brought the gold of Mithridates and the plunder of the temples of Greece, means of seduction still more dangerous than his ability on the field of battle. Hardly ar- rived in Italy, he rallied round him the prescripts and all those who detested the inapt and cruel govern- ment of the successors of Marius. The remains of the great families decimated by them repaired to his camp as to a safe place of refuge. M. Licinitis Cras- sus became one of his ablest lieutenants, and it was then that Cn. Pompeius, the son of Strabo, a genera] 0) Appian, Civil Wars, I. 79. ( 2 ) Appian, Civil Wars, I. 95. THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 271 at twenty-three years of age, raised an army in the Picemim, beat three bodies of the enemies, and came to offer to Sylla his sword, already redoubtable. It was the beginning of the year 672 when Sylla entered Latium ; he completely defeated, near Signia, the legions of the younger Marius, whose name had raised him to the consulship. This battle rendered Sylla master of Rome ; but to the north, in Cisalpine Gaul and Etruria, Carbo, in spite of frequent defeats, disputed the ground with obstinacy against Pompey and Sylla's other lieutenants. In the south, the Sam- nites had raised all their forces, and were preparing to succour Prseneste, besieged by Sylla in person, and defended by young Marius. Pontius Telesinus, the general of the Samnites, finding it out of his power to raise the siege, conceived then the audacious and al- most desperate idea of carrying his whole army to Home, taking it by surprise, and sacking it. " Let us burn the wolves' den," (') he said to his soldiers : " so long as it exists, there will be no liberty in Italy." By a rapid night-march, Telesinus deceived the vig- ilance of his adversary ; but, exhausted with fatigue, on arriving at the foot of the ramparts of Rome, the Samnites were unable to give the assault, a"nd Sylla had time to arrive with the choicest of his legions. A sanguinary battle took place at the very gates of the town, on the day of the calends of November, 672, and it continued far into the, night. The left (') Velleius Paterculus, II. 27. The Samnites thus designated the Ro- mans, in allusion to the wolf, the nurse of the founder of Rome. A Samnite medal represents the bull, the symbol of Italy, throwing the wolf to the ground. It bears the name of C. Papius Mutilus, with the title Embralur, Q \M N Q ^ TT1'3> an Oscan word corresponding to the Latin imperator. 272 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. wing of the Romans was beaten and took to flight, in spite of the efforts of Sylla to rally it ; Telesinus per- ished in the fight, and Crassus, who commanded the right wing, gained a complete victory. At daylight, the Samnites who had escaped the slaughter laid down their arms and demanded quarter. (*) More than a year still passed away before the com- plete pacification of Italy, and it was only obtained by employing the most violent and sanguinary meas- ures. Sylla made this terrible declaration, that he would not pardon one of his enemies. At Prseneste, all the senators who were the partisans of Marius had their throats cut, and the inhabitants were put to the sword. Those of Norba, surprised through treason, rather than surrender, buried themselves under the ruins of their city. Sylla had scrupled at nothing in his way to power : the corruption of the armies, ( 2 ) the pillage of towns, the massacre of the inhabitants, and the extermina- tion of his enemies ; nor did he show any more scru- ples in maintaining himself in it. He inaugurated his return to the Senate by the slaughter, near the Temple of Bellona, of three thousand Samnites who had surrendered prisoners. ( 3 ) A considerable num- (*) " Thus terminated two most disastrous wars : the Italic, called also the Social War, and the Civil War ; they had lasted together ten years ; they had mown down more than a hundred and fifty thousand men, of whom twenty- four had been consuls, seven praetors, sixty ediles, and nearly two hundred sen- ators." (Eutropius, V. 6.) ( 2 ) " Sylla fomented these disorders by loading his troops with largesses and profusions without bounds, in order to corrupt and draw to him the soldiers of the opposite parties." (Plutarch, Sylla, 16.) (') Dio Cassius (XXXIV. cxxxvi. 1) gives the number as 8,000; Appian as 3,000. Valerius Maximus speaks of three legions (IX. 2, 1). THE GRACCHI, MAKIUS, AND SYLLA. 273 ber of the inhabitants of Italy were deprived of the right of city which had been granted them after the war of the allies ; (*) he invented a new punishment, that of proscription, ( 2 ) and, in Rome alone, he ban- ished four thousand seven hundred citizens, among whom were ninety senators, fifteen consulars, and two thousand seven hundred knights. ( 3 ) His fury fell heaviest upon the Samnites, whose spirit of independ- ence he feared, and he almost entirely annihilated that nation. (*) Although his triumph had been a reac- tion against the popular party, he treated as prisoners of war the children of the noblest and most respecta- ble families, and, by a monstrous innovation, even the women suffered the same lot. ( 5 ) Lists of proscrip- tion, placarded on the Forum with the names of the intended victims, threw terror into families ; to laugh or cry on looking at these was a crime. ( 6 ) M. Pleto- rius was slaughtered for having fainted at the sight of the punishment inflicted on the praetor, M. Mari- us ; ( 7 ) to denounce the hiding-place of the prescripts, or put them to death, formed a title to recompenses paid from the public treasury, amounting in some ( : ) "A great number of allies and Latins were deprived by one man of the right of city, which had been given to them for their numerous and honourable services." {Speech ofLepidus, Sallust, Fragm., 1. 5.) "We have seen the Ro- man people, at the proposal of the dictator Sylla, take, in the comitia of centu- ries, the right of city from several municipal towns ; we have seen it also de- priving them of the lands they possessed As to the right of city, the interdiction did not last even so long as the military despotism of the dic- tator." (Cicero, Speech for his House, 30.) ( ! ) Appian, Civil Wars, I. 95. Velleius Paterculus, II. 28. ( 3 ) Appian, Civil Wars, I. 95. (*) Strabo, V. iv. 207. ( 5 ) Dio Cassius, XXXIV. 137, 1. (') Dio Cassius, XXXIV. 137. (') Valerius Maximus, IX. ii. 1. 12* 274 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^ESAK. cases to twelve thousand drachmas (about 11,640 francs [460]) ahead; (') to assist them, to have had friendly or any other relations with the enemies of Sylla, was enough to subject the offender to capital punishment. From one end of Italy to the other, all those who had served under the orders of Harms, Carbo, or Norbanus, were massacred or banished, and their goods sold by auction. They were to be struck even in their posterity : the children and grandchil- dren of the prescripts were deprived of the right of inheritance and of being candidates for public offi- ces. ( 2 ) All these acts of pitiless vengeance had been authorised by a law called Valeria, promulgated in 672, and which, in appointing Sylla dictator, conferred upon him unlimited powers. Yet, though Sylla kept the supreme power, he permitted the election of the consuls every year, an example which was subsequent- ly followed by the emperors. Calm re-established in Rome, a new constitution was promulgated, which restored the aristocracy to its ascendency. The dictator fell into the delusion of believing that a system founded by violence, upon selfish interests, could survive him. It is easier to change laws than to arrest the course of ideas. The legislation of the Gracchi was abolished. The senators, by the law jiidiciaria, acquired again the ex- clusive privilege of the judicatory functions. The colony of Capua, a popular creation, was destroyed and restored to the domain. Sylla assumed to him- self one of the first privileges of the censorship, which 0) Plutarch, Caio of Utica, 21. () Appian, Civil War*, I. 96. Titus Livins, Epitome, LXXXIX. THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 275 he had suppressed the nomination of the members of the Senate. He introduced into that assembly, dec- imated during the civil wars, three hundred knights. By the law on the priesthood, he removed from the votes of the people and restored to the college the choice of the pontiffs and of the sovereign pontiff. He limited the power of the tribunes, leaving them only the right of protection (auxitium), (*) and for- bidding their access to the superior magistracies. ( 2 ) He flattered himself that he had thus removed the ambitious from a career henceforward profitless. He admitted into Rome ten thousand new citizens (called Cornelians), ( 3 ) taken from among the slaves whose masters had been proscribed. Similar enfran- chisements took place in the rest of Italy. He had almost exterminated two nations, the Etruscans and the Samnites; he re-peopled their deserted countries by distributing the estates of his adversaries among a considerable number of his soldiers, whom some au- thors raise to the prodigious number of forty-seven legions, ( 4 ) and created for his veterans twenty-three military colonies on the territory taken from the rebel towns. ( 5 ) All these arbitrary measures were dictated by the spirit of reaction; but those which follow were in- spired by the desire to re-establish order and the hie- rarchy. (') Appian, I. 100. Velleius Patcrculus, II. 31. The auxilium was the pro- tection accorded by the tribune of the people to whoever claimed it. ( 2 ) Appian, Civil Wars, I. 100 et seq. ( 3 ) Appian, Civil Wars, I. (See, on an inscription raised by the freedmen in honour of the dictator, and which has been discovered in Italy, Mommsen, Inscriptions Latinos Antiquissimce, p. 168.) ( 4 ) Titus Livius, Epitome, LXXXIX. ( s ) Appian, Civil Wars, 1. 1QO. 276 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. The rules formerly adopted for the succession of the magistracies were restored. ( l ) No person could offer himself for the consulship without having pre- viously held the office of praetor ; or for the praetor- ship before he had held that of questor. Thirty years were fixed as the age necessary for the questorship, forty for the praetorship, and forty-three for the con- sulship. The law required an interval of two years between the exercise of two different magistracies, and often between the same magistracy, a rule so se- verely maintained, that, for having braved it in mere- ly soliciting for the consulship, ( 2 ) Lucretius Ofella, one of Sylla's most devoted partisans, was put to death. The dictator withdrew from the freedmen the right of voting, from the knights the places of honour in the spectacles ; he put a stop to the adju- dications entrusted to the farmers-general and the dis- tributions of wheat, and suppressed the corporations, which threatened a real danger to public tranquillity. Lastly, to put limits to extravagance, the sumptuary laws were promulgated. ( 3 ) By the law de provinciis ordinandis, he sought to regulate the provinces and ameliorate their adminis- tration. The two consuls and the eight praetors were retained at Rome during their year of office by the administration of civil affairs. They took afterwards, in quality of proconsuls or propraetors, the command of one of the ten provinces, which they exercised dur- ing a year; after which a new curiate law became (') Appian, Civil Wars, I. 100. In 574, the age required for the different magistracies had already been fixed. (Titus Livius, XL. 44.) (') Appian, Civil Wars, 1. 101. Titus Livius, Epitome, LXXXIX. ( 3 ) Aulus Gellius, II. 34- THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SYLLA. 277 necessary to renew the imperium ; they preserved it until their return to Rome. Thirty days were allow- ed to them for quitting the province after the arrival of their successors. ( J ) The number of praetors, ques- tors, pontiffs, and augurs was augmented. ( 2 ) Every year twenty questors were to "be named, which would ensure the recruitment of the Senate, since this office gave entrance to it. Sylla multiplied the commissions of justice. He took measures for putting a stop to the murders which desolated Italy (lex de sicariis), and to protect the citizens against outrages (lex de in- jurns). The lex magistratis completed, so to say, the preceding. ( 3 ) In the number of crimes of high trea- son, punished capitally, are the excesses of magistrates charged with the administration of the provinces; quitting their government without leave of the Sen- ate; conducting an army beyond the limits of his province ; undertaking a war unauthorised ; treating with foreign chiefs : such were the principal acts de- nounced as crimes against the Republic. There was not one of them of which Sylla himself had not been guilty. Sylla abdicated in 675, the only extraordinary act which remained for him to accomplish. He who had earned mourning into so many families returned into his own house alone, through a respectful and sub- missive crowd. Such was the ascendency of his old (') Cicero, Familiar Letters, III. 6, 8, 10. ( 2 ) Titus Livius, Epitome, LXXXIX. Tacitus, Amals, XL 22. Aurelius Victor, Illustrious Men, Ixxv. ( 3 ) Cicero, De Oratore, 11.39. "A law which, among the ancients, em- braced different objects : treasons in the army, seditions at Rome, diminution of the majesty of the Roman people by the bad administration of a magistrate." (Tacitus, Annals, I. 72.) 278 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. power, supported, moreover, by the ten thousand Cor- nelians present in Rome and devoted to his person, ( J ) that, though he had resumed his position of simple cit- izen, he was still allowed to act as absolute master, and even on the eve of his death, which occurred in 676, he made himself the executioner of pitiless jus- tice, in daring to cause to be slaughtered before his eyes the praetor Granius, guilty of exaction. ( 2 ) Unexampled magnificence was displayed at his fu- neral ; his body was earned to the Campus Martius, where previously none but the kings had been in- humed. ( 3 ) He left Italy tamed, but not subdued ; the great nobles in power, but without moral author- ity ; his partisans enriched, but trembling for their riches ; the numerous victims of tyranny held down, but growling under the oppression; lastly, Rome taught that henceforth she is without protection against the boldness of any fortunate soldier. ( 4 ) VII. The history of the last fifty years, and espe- EffectsofPyiu'a cially the dictatorship of Sylla, show be- Dicutorship. yond dou]:)i i}iSLi Italy demanded a mas- ter. Everywhere institutions gave way before the power of an individual, sustained not only by his ow T n partisans, but also by the irresolute multitude, which, fatigued by the action and reaction of so many opposite parties, aspired to order and repose. If the (') Appian, Civil Wars, 1. 104. ( J ) He waited the death of the dictator to rob the treasury of a sum which he owed to the State. (Plutarch, Sylla, 46.) ( 3 ) Appian, Civil Wars, 1. 106. (*) Sylla had taken the name of Foi-tunate (Felix). (Mommsen, Inscrip- tiones Latince Antiquissimce, p. 168), or of Faustus, according to Velleius Pater- culus. THE GRACCHI, MABIUS, AND SYLLA. 279 conduct of Sylla had been moderated, what is called the Empire would probably have commenced with him ; but his power was so cruel and so partial, that after his death, the abuses of liberty were forgotten in the memory of abuses of tyranny. The more the democratic spirit had expanded, the more the ancient institutions lost their prestige. In fact, as democracy, trusting and passionate, believes always that its inter- ests are better represented by an individual than by a political body, it was incessantly disposed to deliver its future to the man who raised himself above others by his own merit. The Gracchi, Marius, and Sylla, had in turn disposed at will of the destinies of the Republic, and trampled under foot with impunity an- cient institutions and ancient customs ; but their reign was ephemeral, (') for they only represented factions. Instead of embracing collectively the hopes and inter- ests of all the peninsula of Italy, they favoured exclu- sively particular classes of society. Some sought be- fore all to secure the prosperity of the proletaries of Rome, or the emancipation of the Italiotes, or the pre- ponderance of the knights ; others, the privileges of the aristocracy. They failed. To establish a durable order of things there want- ed a man who, raising himself above vulgar passions, should unite in himself the essential qualities and just ideas of each of his predecessors, avoiding their faults as well as their errors. To the greatness of soul and love of the people of certain tribunes, it was needful (*) "It cannot be denied that Sylla had then the power of a king, although he had restored the Republic." (Cicero, Speech on the Report of the Aruspices, 25.) 280 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. to join the military genius of great generals and the strong sentiments of the Dictator in favour of order and the hierarchy. The man capable of so lofty a mission already ex- isted ; but perhaps, in spite of his name, he might have still remained long unknown, if the penetrating eye of Sylla had not discovered him in the midst of the crowd, and, by persecution, pointed him out to public attention. That man was Caesar. BOOK II. HISTORY OF JULIUS (LESAR. CHAPTER I. (654-684.) I. ABOUT the time when Marius, by his victories First Yeara of C*- over *^ e Cimbri and Teutones, saved Ita- ly from a formidable invasion, was born at Rome the man who would one day, by again sub- duing the Gauls and Germans, retard for several cen- turies the irruption of the barbarians, give the knowl- edge of their rights to oppressed peoples, assure con- tinuance to Roman civilisation, and bequeath his name to the future chiefs of nations, as a consecrated em- blem of power. Caius Julius Caesar was born at Rome on the 4th of the ides of Quintilis (July 12), 654, ( J ) and the (') The celebrated German author, Mommsen (Roman History, III. 15), does not admit this date of 654. He proposes, under correction, the date of G52, for the reason that the ages required for the higher offices of State, since Sylla's time, were thirty-seven for the edileship, forty for the prsetorship, forty- three for the consulship, and as Cossar was curule cedile in 689, praetor in 692, consul in 695, he would, had he been born in 654, have filled each of these offi- ces two years before the legal age. This objection, certainly of some force, is dispelled by other historical testi- mony. Besides, we know that at Rome they did not always observe the laws when dealing with eminent men. Lucullus was raised to be chief magistrate before the required age, and Pompey was consul at thirty-four. (Appian, Civil 282 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^SAR. month Quintilis, called Julius [July] in honour of him, has borne for 1,900 years the name of the great man. He was the son of C. Julius Caesar, (*) praetor, Wars, I. 14.) Tacitus speaks on this matter thus: "With our ancestors thin magistracy (the questorsliip) was the prize of merit only, for every citizen of ability had then the right to aim at these honours ; even age was so little re- garded, that extreme youth did not exclude from either the consulship or the dicta- torship." (Annals, XI. 22.) In any case, if the opinion of M. Mommsen bo adopted, the birth of Cassar must be referred to 651, not 652. For, if he was born in the month of July, 652, he could only be forty-three years of age in the month of July, 695 ; and as the nomination of the consuls preceded by six months their entering into office, it would be in the month of July, 694, when he would have attained the legal age, which would bring the date of his birth to the year 651. But Plutarch (Ccesar, 69), Suetonius (C&sar, 88), and Appian ( Civil IVars, II. 149) all agree in saying that Caesar was fifty-six when he was assassinated on the 15th of March, 710, which fixes his birth in the year 654. On the other hand, according to Velleius Paterculus (II. 43), Caesar was ap- pointed flamen of Jupiter by Marius and Cinna when scarcely out of infancy, and at Rome infancy ended at about fourteen ; and the consulship of Marius and Cinna being in 668, Caesar, according to our calculation, would then, in fact, have entered on his fourteenth year. The same author adds that he was about eighteen in 672, when he left Rome to escape the proscriptions of Sylla, a new reason for retaining the preceding date. Caesar made his first campaign in Asia, at the taking of Mitylene, in 674 (Titus Livius, Epitome, LXXXIX.), which makes him twenty at the date of his entrance into the service. According to Sallust ( Catilina, 49), when Caesar was nominated grand pontiff in competition with Catulus, ho was almost a youth (adolescentulus) and Dio Cassius says the same, in nearly the same terms. Doubtless they expressed themselves thus because of the great dispro- portion in the age of the two candidates. The expression of these authors, although unfitting, nevertheless agrees better with our reckoning, which as- cribes thirty-seven years of age to Caesar, than to the other, which gives him thirty-nine. Tacitus also, as we shall see in a note to a subsequent page, when speaking of the accusation against Dolabella, tends to make Caesar too young rather than too old. ( l ) The family of the .Tulii was very ancient, and we find personages bearing this name from the third century of Rome. The first of whom history makes mention was C. Julius Julus, consul in 265. There were other consuls of the same family in 272, 281, 307, 324; consular tribunes in 330, 351, 362, 367; and a dictator, C. Julius Julus, in 402 ; but their filiation is little known. The genealogy of Caesar begins in a direct line only from Sextus Julius Caesar, praetor in 546. We borrow the genealogy of the family of the Julii from the History of Rome by Families, by the learned professor W. Drumann (Vol. III., 654684. 283 who died suddenly at Pisa about 670, (*) and of Au- relia, descended from an illustrious plebeian family. page 120 ; Kcenigsberg, 1837), introducing one variation only, explained in Note ( 4 ) of page 290. Sex. Jul. Csesar, L. JuL Caesar, praetor, 546. L. Jul. Csesar, Sex. Jul. Caa^ar, prater, 571. trib. mil., 573. L. J. Caesar, Sex. J. Csesar, C. Jnl. Ctesar. prsetor, 5S8. Cos.. 597. Sex. J. Csesar, L. J. Csesar. C. JuL Csesar. prsetor, 631. Popillia. Marcia. I I- I I L. Jul. Csesar, C. Jul. Csesar. C. Jnl. Csesar, Julia. Sex. Jul. drs Cos.,C64. . Strabo. prsetor. C. Marius. Cos., 663. Censor. sedil. cur., 664. Aurelia. Fulvia. L. Jul. Csesar, Julia. C. JUT.. CJESAB, Julin, maj. Julia, min. Sex. Jul. Csesar, Cos.. 690. M. Antonius. Dictator. L. Pinarius. M. A. Halbus. flam. Quirin. P. Lentulus. Cornelia * Q. Pedius. L. Jul. Csesar. Julia. Atia Sex. Julius Csesar. 70S. Cn. Pomp. Mag. (moth, of Augustus). 708. Cn. Pompeius. Pompeia. Calpurnia. The opinion most accredited with the ancients, on the origin of the name of Cffisar, was that Julius slew an elephant in a fight. In the Punic tongue ccesar signifies "an elephant." The medals of Csesar, as grand pontiff, confirm this hypothesis ; on the reverse is an elephant crushing a serpent beneath its feet. (Cohen, Consular Medals, plate xx. 10.) We know that some symbols on the Koman medals are a species of canting heraldry. Pliny gives another etymol- ogy of the name of Caesar : "Primusque Caesarum a caeso matris utero dictus, qua de causa et Ccesones appellati." (Natural History,VII. 9.) Festus (p. 57) thus expresses himself: "Ctesor a ccesarie dictus est; qui scilicet cum caesarie natus est ;" and page 45 : "Ccesariati (comati)." Finally, Spartianus (Life of sElius Verus, ii.) sums up in these words the greater part of the etymologies: "Cuesarem vel ab elephante (qui lingua Maurorum ccesar dicitur) in prcelio cse- so, cum qui primus sic appellatus est, doctissimi et ertiditissimi viri putant dic- tum ; vel quia mortua matre, ventre caeso sit natus ; vel quod cum magnis crin- ibus sit utero parentis effusus ; vel quod oculis caesiis et ultra hnmanum morem viguerit." (See Isidore, Oriyines, IX. iii. 12. Servius, Commentary on the ^Em- id, I. 290, and Constantino Manasses, p. 71.) ( l ) Pliny, Natural History, ,VII. 53. "Caasar was in his sixteenth year when he lost his father." (Suetonius, 1.) 284 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^SAR. By ancestry and alliances, Caesar inherited that double prestige which is derived from ancient origin and recent renown. On one side, he claimed to be descended from An- chises and Venus ; (*) on the other, he was the nephew of the famous Marius who had married his aunt Julia. When the widow of this great captain died in 686, Caesar pronounced her funeral oration, and thus traced out his own genealogy : " My aunt Julia, on the ma- ternal side, is of the issue of kings ; on the paternal side, she descends from the immortal gods : for her mother was a Marcia, ( 2 ) and the family Marcius Hex are the descendants of Ancus Marcius. The Julia family, to which I belong, descends from Venus her- self. Thus our house unites to the sacred character of kings, who are the most powerful among men, the venerated holiness of the gods, who hold kings them- selves under their subjection." ( 3 ) This proud glorification of his race attests the value which was set at Rome upon antiquity of origin ; but Caesar, sprung from that aristocracy which had pro- duced so many illustrious men, and impatient to fol- low in their footsteps, showed, from early youth, that nobility obliges, instead of imitating those whose ( l ) " He sprang from the noble family of the Jvlii, and, according to an opin- ion long believed in, he derived his origin from Venus and Anchises." (Vel- leias Paterculus, IL 41.) (*) In fact, the gens Marcia, one of the most illustrious patrician families in Rome, reckoned -among its ancestors Numa Marcius, who married Pompilia, the daughter of Nnma Pompilius, by whom he had Ancus Marcius, who was King of Rome after the death of Tullus Hostilius. (Plutarch, Coriolanus, 1 ; Xuma, 26.) ( 3 ) Suetonius, Ccesar, vi. This passage, as generally translated, is unintelli- gible, because the translators render the words Martii Reges by the Kings Mar- tius, instead of the family of Marcius Rex. 654684. 285 conduct would make one believe that nobility dis- penses. Aurelia, a woman of lofty character and severe mor- als, (') helped above all in the development of his great abilities, by a wise and enlightened education, and prepared him to make himself worthy of the part which destiny had reserved for him. ( 2 ) This first ed- ucation, given by a tender and virtuous mother, has ever as much influence over our future as the most precious . natural qualities. Ca3sar reaped the fruits of it. He also received lessons from M. Antonius Gnipho, the Gaul, a philosopher and master of elo- quence, of a rare mind, of vast learning, and well versed in Greek and Latin letters, which he had cultivated at Alexandria. ( 3 ) Greece was always the country of the arts and sci- ences, and the language of Demosthenes was familiar to* every lettered Roman. ( 4 ) Thus Greek and Latin might be called the two languages of Italy, as they were, at a later period, by the Emperor Claudius. ( 5 ) Caesar spoke both with the same facility ; and, when falling beneath the dagger of Brutus, he pronounced in Greek the last words that issued from his lips. ( 6 ) (') Plntarch, Osor, 10. ( 2 ) ' ' So Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi ; Aurelia, mother of Caesar ; Atia, mother of Augustus, all presided over the education of their children, we arc told, and made them into great men." (Tacitus, Dialogue concerning Orators, 28.) ( 3 ) " Ingenii magni, memorise singularis, nee minus Graece quam Latine doc- tus." (Suetonius, On Illustrious Grammarians, 7.) (*) "A sermone Graeco puerum incipere malo." (Quintilian, Institution of Orattry, I. i.) ( 5 ) Claudius, addressing a foreigner who spoke Greek and Latin, said, "Since thon possesses! our two languages." (Suetonius, Claudius, 42.) ('3 Kat ov, rtKvov ! (Suetonius, Ccesar, 82.) 286 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. Though eager for pleasure, he neglected nothing, says Suetonius, by which to acquire those talents which lead to the highest honours. Now, according to Roman habits, the first offices were attainable only by the union of the most diverse merits. The patri- cian youth, still worthy of their ancestors, were not idle : they sought religious appointments, to give them power over consciences; administrative employments, to influence material interests; discussions and pub- lic discourses, to captivate minds by their eloquence ; finally, military labours, to strike imaginations by the brilliancy of their glory. Emulous of distinction in all, Caesar did not confine himself to the study of let- ters ; he early composed works, among which are cited " The Praises of Hercules," a tragedy of " CEdipus," "A Collection of Choice Phrases," (') a book on "Div- ination." ( 2 ) It seems that these works were written in a style so pure and correct, that they gained for him the reputation of an eminent writer, gravis auctor lin- guce Latinos. ( 3 ) He was less happy in the art of po- etry, if we may believe Tacitus. ( 4 ) However, there remain to us some verses addressed to the memory of Terence, which are not wanting in elegance. ( 5 ) ( l ) Suetonius, Ccesar, 56. (*) "Still quite young, he seems to have attached himself to the kind of eloquence adopted by Strabo Caesar, and he has even given, in his Divination, several passages, word for word, of the discourse of this orator for the Sardini- ans." (Suetonius, C&sar, 55.) (') Aulus Gellius, IV. 16. (*) " For Cffisar and Brutus have also made verses, and have placed them in the public libraries. Poets as feeble as Cicero, but happier than he, in that fewer people knew what they had done." (Tacitus, Dialogue concerning Ora- tors, 21.) (*) Tu quoque, tu in summis, o dimidiate Menander, Poneris, et merito, puri sermonis amator. 654684. 287 Education, then, had made Caesar a distinguished man before he was a great man. He united to good- ness of heart a high intelligence, to an invincible cour- age (*) an enthralling eloquence, ( 2 ) a wonderful mem- ory, ( 3 ) an unbounded generosity; finally, he possess- ed one very rare quality calmness under anger. ( 4 ) " His affability," says Plutarch, " his politeness, his gracious address qualities which he had to a degree beyond his age gained him the affection of the peo- ple." ( 5 ) Two anecdotes of later date must come in here. Plutarch relates that Caesar, during his campaigns, one day, surprised by a violent storm, took shelter in a hut where was only one room, too small to contain many people. He hastened to offer it to Oppius, one of his officers, who was sick ; and himself passed the night in the open air, saying to those who accompa- nied him, " We must leave to the great the places of honour, but yield to the sick those that are necessary to them." Another time, Valerius Leo, with whom he was dining at Milan, having set before him an ill- Lenibus atque utinam scriptis adjuncta foret vis Comica, ut aequato virtus polleret honore Cum Grsecis ; neque in hac despectus parte jaceres ! Unum hoc maceror et doleo tibi deesse, Terenti. (Suetonius, Life of Terence, 5.) (') "Liberal to prodigality, and of a courage above human nature and even imagination." (Velleius Paterculus, II. 41.) ( 2 ) "He held, undeniably, the second rank among the orators of Home." (Plutarch, Casar, 3.) ( 3 ) "Nam cui Hortensio, Lucullove, vel Ccesari, tam parata unqtiam adfuit recordatio, quam tibi sacra mens tua loco momcntoqne, quo jusseris, reddit omne depositum?" (Latinus Pacatus, Panegyricus in Theodosium, XVIII. 3.) (Pliny, Natural History, VII. 25.) (*) " Quamvis moderate soleret irasci, maluit tamen non posse." (Seneca, De Ira, II. 23.) (*) Plutarch, Ccesar, 4. 288 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. seasoned dish, the companions of Caesar remonstrated, but he reproached them sharply for their want of con- sideration for his host, saying " that they were free not to eat of a dish they did not like, but that to complain of it aloud was a want of good breeding." ( ] ) These facts, of small importance in themselves, yet testify to Caesar's goodness of heart, and to the deli- cacy of the well-bred man who is always observant of propriety. To his natural qualities, developed by a brilliant education, were added physical advantages. His tall stature, his rounded and well-proportioned limbs, stamped his person with a grace that distinguished him from all others. ( 2 ) He had black eyes, a pierc- ing look, a pale complexion, a straight and high nose. His mouth, small and regular, but with rather thick lips, gave a kindly expression to the lower part of his face, whilst his breadth of brow betokened the devel- opment of the intellectual faculties. His face was full, at least, in his youth ; for in his busts, doubtless made towards the end of his life, his features are thinner, and bear traces of fatigue. ( 3 ) He had a sonorous and penetrating voice, a noble gesture, and an air of dig- nity reigned over all his person. ( 4 ) His constitution, at first delicate, became robust by a frugal regimen and the habit of exposing himself to the inclemency of the ( l ) Plntarch. Ctesar, 19. ( s ) "To the external advantages which distinguished him from all the other citizens, Caesar joined an impetuous and powerful soul." (Velleius Paterculus, II. 41.) ( 3 ) Suetonins, Ccesar, 15. ( 4 ) " By his voice, his gesture, the grand and noble air of his person, he had a certain brilliant manner of speech, without the least artifice." (Cicero, Bru- tus, 75 ; copied by Suetonius, C&sar, 55.) 654684. 289 weather. (*) Accustomed from his youth to all bodi- ly exercises, he was a bold horseman, ( 2 ) and bore pri- vations and fatigues without difficulty. ( 3 ) Habitu- ally temperate, his health was impaired neither by ex- cess of labour nor by excess of pleasure. However, on two occasions the first at Corduba, the second at Thapsus he was seized with nervous attacks, wrong- ly mistaken for epilepsy. (*) He paid special attention to his person, carefully shaved or plucked out his beard, and artistically brought his hair forward to the front of his head, which, in more advanced age, served to conceal his bald forehead. He was reproached with the affecta- tion of scratching his head with one finger only, so that he should not disarrange his hair. ( 5 ) His toi- lette was refined ; his toga was generally ornamented with a laticlavia, fringed down to the hands, and fast- ened by a girdle carelessly tied about his loins ; a cos- tume which distinguished the elegant and effeminate youths of the period. But Sylla was not deceived by these appearances of frivolity, and repeated that they must take care of this young man with the loose gir- dle. ( 6 ) He had a taste for pictures, statues, and jew- 0) Plutarch, Osar, 18. (2) "From his first youth he was much used to horseback, and had even acquired the facility of riding with dropped reins and his hands joined behind his back." (Plutarch, Ccesar, 18.) (') " He ate and slept without enjoying the pleasure of either, and only to obey necessity." (Velleius Paterculus, II. 41.) (*) Suetonius, Co-sew, 53. Plutarch, Ccesar, 18 and 58.) ( 5 ) "And when," says Cicero, "I look at his hair, so artistically arranged; and when I see him scratch his head with one finger, I cannot believe that such a man could conceive so black a design as to overthrow the Roman Republic." (Plutarch, Ctesar, 4.) (') Suetonius, Ccesar, 45. Cicero said likewise, "I suffered myself to bo 13 T 290 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR els ; and, in memoiy of his origin, always wore on his finger a ring, on which was engraved the figure of an armed Venus. ( ] ) In fine, we discover in Caesar, both physically and morally, two natures rarely united in the same per- son. He joined an aristocratic delicacy of body to the muscular constitution of the warrior ; the love of luxury and the arts to a passion for military life, in all its simplicity and rudeness : in a word, he allied the elegance of manner which seduces with the energy of character which commands. II. Sucji was Csesar at the age of eighteen, when c*ar permuted Sylla seized the dictatorship. ( 2 ) Already by Sy lla(6T2). name, his intellect, his affable manners, which pleased men, and, perhaps, women still more. The influence of his uncle Marius caused him to be nominated priest of Jupiter {flamen dialis) at the age of fourteen. ( 3 ) At sixteen, betrothed, doubtless against his will, to Cossutia, the daughter of a rich knight, he broke his engagement, ( 4 ) after the death caught by the fashion of his girdle," alluding to his hanging robe, which gave him an effeminate appearance. (Macrobius, Saturnalia, II. 3.) (') Dio Cassius, XLIII. 43. ( 3 ) Velleius Paterculus, II. 41. ( 3 ) Suetonius (Ccesar, 1) says that Caesar was designated (destinalus) flamen. Velleius Paterculus (II. 43), that he was created flamen. In our opinion he was created, but not inaugurated, flamen. Now, as long as this formality was not accomplished, he was only the flamen designate. What proves that he had never been inaugurated is, that Sylla could revoke it; and, on another hand, Tacitus says (Annales, III. 53) that, after the death of Cornelius Merula, the flamenship of Jupiter remained vacant for seventy-two years, without any interruption to the special worship of this god. So that, evidently, they did not count the flamenship of Cassar as real, since he had never entered on his office. (*) "Dimissa Cossutia . . . quae pretextato desponsata fuerat." (Suetonius, 554684. 291 of his father, to draw still closer his alliance with the popular party by many ing, a year after, in 671, Cor- nelia, daughter of L. Cornelius Cinna, the ancient col- league of Marius, and the representative of his cause. From this marriage was born, the following year, Ju- lia, who became, in after time, the wife of Pompey. (*) Sylla saw with displeasure this young man, who already occupied men's thoughts, although, as yet, he had done nothing, linking himself more closely with those who were opposed to him. He wished to force him to divorce Cornelia, but he found him inflexible. When every one yielded to his will ; when, by his or- ders, Piso separated from Annia, the widow of Cin- na, ( 2 ) and Pompey ignominiously dismissed his wife, the daughter of Antistius, who died for his cause, ( 3 ) to marry Emilia, the daughter-in-law of the dictator, Caesar maintained his independence at the price of his personal safety. Become suspected, he was deprived of his priest- hood, ( 4 ) and of his wife's dowry, and declared incapa- ble of inheriting from his family. Obliged to conceal himself in the outskirts of Home to escape persecution, he changed his place of retreat every night, though ill with fever; but, arrested by a band of assassins Cf felling into civil WOT through the diversity of opinion between the two consuls, Lepidus and Catulus. They were ready to come to blows. The former, elevated to the consul- ship by the influence of Pompey, against the advice of Sylla, fomented an insurrection. " He lighted up," says Floras, " the fire of civil war at the very funeral pyre of the dictator." ( J ) He wished to abrogate the Cornelian laws, restore to the tribunes their power, to the proscribed their rights, to the allies their lands. ( 2 ) These designs against the system established by the dictator agreed with Caesar's ideas, and endeavours were made, by seductive offers, to draw him into the intrigues which were then going on; but he kept aloof. ( 3 ) The Senate succeeded in making the consuls swear that they would be reconciled, and thought to ensure peace by giving each a military command. Catulus received the government of Italy, and Lepidus that of Cisalpine Gaul. The latter, before going to his province, visited Etruria, where the partisans of Ma- rius flocked to him. The Senate, informed of these doings, recalled him to Rome, towards the end of the year, to hold the comitia. ( 4 ) Lepidus, leaving Brutus the praetor encamped near Mutina (Modend), marched back to Rome at the head of his army. Beaten by Catulus and Pompey at the bridge of Milvius, he with- drew to the coast of Etruria, and, after a new defeat, fled to Sardinia, where he ended his career naisera* (') Floras, III. 23. ( J ) Appian, I. 107. (') Suetonius, C^sar, 3. () Sallust, Fragments, I., p. 363. 654684. 97 bly. (*) Perpenna, his lieutenant, went, with the wreck of his army, to rejoin Sertorius in Spain. Caesar acted wisely in keeping out of these move- ments, for not only did the character of Lepidus in- spire him with no confidence, ( 2 ) but he must have thought that the dictatorship of Sylla was too recent, that it had inspired too many fears, and created too many new interests, to admit of the reaction, still in- complete in men's minds, succeeding by arms. For the present, they must limit themselves to acting on public opinion, by branding with words the instru- ments of the past tyranny. The most general way of entering on a political ca- reer was by instituting a prosecution against some high personage. ( 3 ) Its success mattered little ; the real point was to be brought prominently forward by some remarkable speech, and offer a proof of patriot- ism. Cornelius Dolabella, one of the friends of Sylla, who had had the honours of the consulate and triumph, and who, two years before, was governor of Macedo- nia, was now accused by Caesar of excesses committed in his government (677). He was acquitted by the tribunal composed of the creatures of the dictator. ( 4 ) Public opinion did not praise Caesar the less for hav- ing dared to attack a man who was supported and ( 1 ) Florus, III. 23. ( 2 ) Suetonius, Ctesar, 3. ( 3 ) " The Romans regarded as honourable accusations which had no private enmity as their motive, and they liked to see young men attach themselves to the pursuit of the guilty, as generous dogs attack wild beasts." (Plutarch, Lu- , cullus, 1.) (*) Plutarch, CVcsar, 4. Asconius, Discourse for Scaurus, XVI. ii. 245, edit. Schiitz. 13* 298 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. defended by orators such as Hortensius and L. Aure- lius Cotta. Besides, he displayed so much eloquence, that this first speech gave him at once a veritable ce- lebrity. ( J ) Encouraged by this success, Caesar cited C. Antonius Hybrida before the praetor M. Lucullus for having, at the head of a body of cavalry, pillaged certain parts of Greece when Sylla was returning from Asia. ( 2 ) The accused was also acquitted, but the popularity of the accuser still increased. He also spoke, probably, in other causes now unknown. Taci- tus speaks of a speech of Caesar's in favour of a cer- tain Decius the Samnite, ( 3 ) without doubt the same mentioned by Cicero, who, flying from the proscrip- tion of Sylla, was kindly received by Aulus Cluen- tius. ( 4 ) Thus Caesar boldly offered himself as the defender of the oppressed Greeks or Samnites, who had suffered so much from the regime preceding. He gained especially the good- will of the former, whose opinions, highly influential at Rome, helped to make reputations. ( l ) Valerius Maximus, VIII. ix. 3. "Caesar was twenty-one years of age when he attacked Dolabella, in a speech which we still read to-day with admi- ration." (Tacitus, Dialogue on the Orators, 34.) According to the chronolog- ical order which we have adopted, Caesar, instead of twenty-one, would have been twenty-three years old ; but as Tacitus, in the same citation, also errs, by two years, in making Crassus, who had accused Carbo, nineteen instead of twen- ty-one, we may suppose that he has committed the same mistake with Caesar. In fact, Crassus tells his own age in Cicero (On the Orators, III. 20, 74) : "Quippe qui omnium maivrrime ad publicas causas accesserim, annosque natus itnum et rt^/n resolved to keep out of the troubles which agitated Italy, and doubtless felt his presence in Rome useless to his cause and irksome to himself. It is often advantageous to political men 'to disappear for a tune from the scene; they thus avoid compromising themselves in daily struggles without aim, and their reputation, instead of losing, increases by absence. During the winter of 678 Caesar again quitted Italy, for the purpose of going to Rhodes to complete his studies. This island, then the centre of intellectual lights, the dwelling-place of the most celebrated philosophers, was the school of all the well-born youth. Cicero himself had gone there for lessons some years before. In his passage, Caesar was taken by pirates near Pharmacusa, a small island in the archipelago of the Sporades, at the mouth of the Gulf of Jassius. (*) Notwithstanding the campaign of P. Servilius Isauri- cus, these pirates still infested the sea with numerous fleets. They demanded twenty talents (2,329) for his ransom. He offered fifty (,11,640), which must naturally have given them a high notion of their prisoner, and insured him better treatment. He sent ( ! ) This island, now called Fermaco, is at the entrance of the Gulf of Assem- Kalessi. Pliny and Stephen of Byzantium are the only geographers who men- tion it, and the last tells us further, that it was here that Attalus, the famous lieutenant of Philip of Macedon, was slain hy Alexander's order. 300 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^SAR. trusty agents, and among others Epicrates, one of his Milesian slaves, to raise this sum in the neighbouring towns. (') Though the allied provinces and towns were in this case obliged to furnish the ransom, it was none the less curious, as a proof of their wealth, to see a young man of twenty-four, arrested in a lit- tle island of Asia Minor, instantly able to borrow so large a sum. Left alone with a physician and two slaves ( 2 ) in the midst of these ferocious brigands, he held them in awe by his force of character, and passed nearly forty days on board without ever loosing either his sandals or his girdle, to avoid all suspicion of wishing to es- cape by swimming. ( 3 ) He seemed less a captive, says Plutarch, than a prince surrounded by his guards ; now playing with them, now reciting poems to them, he made himself loved and feared, and laughingly told them that, once free, he would have them cruci- fied. ( 4 ) Yet the remembrance of Rome recurred to his mind, and recalled the strifes and enmities he had left there. He was often heard to say, " What pleasure Crassus will have at knowing me in these straits !" ( 5 ) As soon as he received his ransom from Miletus and the other towns, he paid it. Landed on the coast, he hastened to equip ships, impatient to revenge himself. The pirates, surprised ai anchor in the har- bour of the island, were almost all made prisoners, and their booty fell into his hands. He secured them 0) Polyeenus, Stratagems, VII. 23. ( s ) Suetonius, Caesar, 4. ( 3 ) Vclleius Paterculus, II. 41. () Plutarch, Casar, 2. (*) Plutarch, Crassus, 8. 654-684. 301 in the prison at Pergamus, to deliver them up to Ju- nius Silanus, the proconsul of Asia, whose duty it was to punish them. But, wishing to sell them and make a profit, Junius replied in an evasive manner. Caesar returned to Pergamus, and had them crucified. (*) He went afterwards to Rhodes, to attend the les- sons of Apollonius Molo, the most illustrious of the masters of eloquence of that time, who had formerly been to Rome, in 672, as the Rhodian ambassador. About the same time one of his uncles, the proconsul M. Aurelius Cotta, was appointed governor of Bithyn- ia, bequeathed by Nicomedes to the Roman people, and charged, with Lucullus, to oppose the new inva- sions of Mithridates. Cotta, beaten by land and sea near Chalcedon, was reduced to great straits, and Mithridates was advancing against Cyzicus, an allied town, which Lucullus afterwards relieved. On an- other side, Euniachius, a lieutenant of the King of Pontus, ravaged Phrygia, where he massacred all the .Romans, and seized several of the southern provinces of Asia Minor. The rumours of war, the perils into which the allies were falling, took Caesar from his studies. He went over into Asia, levied troops on his own authority, drove out from the province the king's governor, and kept in allegiance towns whose i'aith was doubtful or shaken. ( 2 ) VI. Whilst he was making war on the coasts of . ^sia, his friends at Rome did not forget him : and, O ' C 1 ) Suetonius mentions, as an act of humanity, that their corpses alone were r ailed to the cross, Caesar having had them strangled beforehand to shorten t ieir agony. (Suetonius, Caesar, 74. Vclleius Paterculus, II. 42.) (') Suetonius, Caesar, 4. 302 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. c*ar Pontiff and seeing clearly the importance of Caesar's Military Tribune 1 - "', . , , - (6SO-C84). being clothed with a sacred character, they nominated him pontiff, in the place of his uncle, L. Aurelius Cotta, consul in 680, who had died sud- denly in Gaul the following year. (*) This circumstance obliged him to return to Rome. The sea continued to swarm with pirates, who must necessarily owe him a grudge for the death of their comrades. The better to escape them, he crossed the Adriatic in a boat of four oars, accompanied only by two friends and ten slaves. ( 2 ) In the passage, think- ing that he saw sails in the horizon, he seized his sword, resolved to sell his life dearly ; but his fears were not justified, and he landed safe and sound in Italy. Immediately on his return to Rome, he was elected military tribune, and succeeded by a large majority over his rival, C. Popilius. ( 3 ) This already elevated rank, since it gave him the command of about a thou- sand men, was the first step which the young nobility easily attained, either by election or by the choice of the generals. ( 4 ) CaBsar does not seem to have profit- ed by his new position to take part in the important wars in which the Republic was then engaged. And yet the clang of arms echoed from all quarters. f 1 ) Velleius Paterculus, 11.43. Asconius, On the Oration of Cicero against Pisa; edit. Orelli.' (=) Vdlcius Paterculus, II. 53. ( 3 ~) Suetonius, Civsar, 5. Plutarch, Cccsar, 5. (*) The tribunes by the nomination of the general were usually called rufuli, because they were established by the law of Rutilius Rufus ; the military trib- unes elected by the people were called comitati ; they were held as veritable magistrates. (Pseudo-Asconius, Commentary on the First Speech of Cicero against Verres, p. 142, edit. Orelli; and Festus under Rufuli, p. 261, edit. Mill- Icr.) 654-684. 303 In Spain Sertorius successfully continued the war begun in 674 against the lieutenants of Sylla. Joined in 677 by Perpenna, at the head of thirty cohorts, ( : ) lie had got together a formidable army, bravely main- tained the standard of Marius, and given the name of Senate to an assemblage of 300 Romans. Vanquish- er of Metellus for several years, Sertorius, gifted with a vast military genius, exercising great influence over the Celtiberians and Lusitanians, and master of the passes, ( 2 ) was dreaming of crossing the Alps. The Spaniards had already given him the name of a sec- ond Hannibal. But Pompey, sent in all haste to Spain, reinforced the army of Metellus, deprived Ser- torius of all hope of penetrating into Italy, and even drove him far back from the Pyrenees. The united efforts of the two generals, however, did not effect the subjugation of Spain, which, since 680, had been en- tirely re-conquered by Sertorius. But soon after this, his lieutenants experiencing reverses, desertion began among his soldiers, and he himself lost his confidence. Yet he would have resisted for a long time still, had not Perpenna caused him to be assassinated by an in- famous act of treachery. This murder did not profit is author. Though Perpenna succeeded Sertorius in :he command of the troops, he found himself an ob- ject of their hatred and contempt. Soon defeated , ind taken prisoner by Pompey, he was put to death. Thus ended the war in Spain-in 682. In Asia, Lucullus successfully pursued the cam- ( 1 ) Plutarch, Sertorius, 15, 16. ( 2 ) " The enemy was already master of the passes which lead to Italy ; from t ie foot of the Alps, he (Pompey) drove him back' to Spain." (Sallust, Letter ''om Poinppy to the Senate.") 304 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. paign against Mithridates, who courageously main- tained the struggle, and had even been able to come to an understanding with Sertorius. Lucullus beat him in Cappadocia (683), and forced him to take ref- uge with Tigranes, his son-in-law, King of Armenia, who soon experienced a sanguinary defeat, and lost his capital, Tigranocerta. In the East, the barbarians infested the frontiers of Macedonia, the pirates of Cilicia sailed from end to end of all the seas with impunity, and the Cretans flew to arms to defend their independence. Italy was torn by the Servile War. This disinher- ited class had risen up anew, despite the bloody re- pression of the Sicilian insurrection from 620 to 623. It had acquired the knowledge of its strength chiefly from the circumstance that each party in the civil troubles had by turns granted its liberty to increase the number of its respective adherents. In 681, seven- ty gladiators, kept at Capua, revolted ; their chief was Spartacus, formerly a soldier, made prisoner, then sold as a slave. In less than a year his band had so much increased that consular armies were needed to combat him, and, having gained a victory in Picenum, for a moment he had entertained the thought of marching upon Koine at the head of 40,000 men. (*) Neverthe- less, forced to withdraw to the south of Italy, he con- tended against the Roman forces successfully for two years, when at last, in 683, Licinius Crassus, at the head of eight legions, conquered him in Apulia. Spar- tacus perished in the fight ; the remainder of the army 0) Velleius Paterculus, IL 30. 100,000 according to Appian (Civil Wart, 1.117). 654-684. 305 of slaves separated into four bodies, one of which, re- tiring towards Gaul, was easily dispersed by Pompey, who was returning from Spain. The 6,000 prisoners taken in the battle fought in Apulia were hanged all along the road from Capua to Rome. Occasions for making himself perfect in the art of war were not wanting to Caesar; but we can under- stand his inaction, for Sylla's partisans alone were at the heads of the armies ; in Spain, Metellus and Pom- pey the first the brother-in-law of the Dictator, the second formerly his best lieutenant ; in Italy, Crassus, the enemy of Caesar, equally devoted to the party of Sylla; in Asia,Lucullus, an old friend of the Dictator, who had dedicated his "Memoirs" (*) to him. Caesar, then, found everywhere either a cause he would not defend, or a general under whom he would not serve. In Spain, however, Sertorius represented the party he would most willingly have embraced ; but Caesar had a horror of civil wars. Whilst faithful to his convic- tions, he seems, in the first years of his career, to have carefully avoided placing between him and his adver- saries that eternal barrier which for ever separates }he children of the same country, after blood has once Keen shed. He had it at heart to be able, in his ex- alted future, to appeal to a past pure from all vio- ence, so that, instead of being the man of a party, he i night rally round him all good citizens. The Republic had triumphed everywhere, but she lad yet to reckon with her conquering generals : she i 3und herself in the presence of Crassus and Pompey, > r ho, proud of their successes, advanced upon Rome (0 Plutarch, Lucullus, 8. u HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. at the head of their armies, to demand or seize the chief power. The Senate could be but little at ease as to the intentions of the latter, who, not long be- fore, had sent an insolent letter from Spain, in which he menaced his country with the sword unless they sent hi in the supplies necessary to cany on the war against Sertorius. (*) The same ambition animated Pompey and Crassus: neither of the two would be the first to disband his army ; each, indeed, brought his own to the gates of the city. Both were elected consuls, allowed a triumph, and forced by the augurs and public opinion to be reconciled together; and they held out their hands to each other, disbanded their troops, and for some time the Republic recover- ed an unexpected calm. ( 2 ) (') Sallust, Fragments, III. 258. (") Appian, Civil Wars, I. xiv. 121. CHAPTEK II. (684-691.) I. WHEN Pompey and Crassus came to the consul- stateoftheRepub- ship, Italy had been a prey to intestine convulsions for sixty -three years. But, notwith standing the repose which society demanded, and which the reconciliation of the two rivals seemed to promise, many opposing passions and interests still seethed in her bosom. (*) Sylla believed he had re-established the Eepublic on its ancient basis, but, instead, he had thrown every- thing into disorder. The property, the life even of aach citizen, was at the mercy of the stronger ; the people had lost the right of appeal, and their legiti- mate share in the elections ; the poor, the distribution rf wheat ; the tribuneship, its secular privileges ; and :he influential order of the knights, their political and inancial importance. At Kome, no more guarantee for justice ; in Italy, 10 more security for the rights of citizenship, so dear- y acquired ; in the provinces, no more consideration or subjects and allies. Sylla had restored their pre- ogatives to the upper class without being able to estore their former prestige; having made use of >nly corrupt elements, and appealed to only sordid (') " The Eepublic, wounded and sick, so to say, had need of repose, no latter at what price." (Sallust, Fragments, I. 68.) 308 HISTORY OF JULIUS OXSAR. passions, he left behind him a powerless oligarchy, and a thoroughly distracted people. The country was divided between those whom his tyranny had enriched and those whom it had despoiled; the one fearing to lose what they had just acquired, the other hoping to regain what they had lost. The aristocracy, proud of their wealth and ances- try, absorbed in all the pleasures of luxury, kept the new men ( J ) out of the highest offices, and, by a long continuance of power, had come to look on the chief magistracies as their property. Cato, in a discourse to the Senate, exclaimed : " Instead of the virtues of our ancestors we have luxury and avarice; the pov- erty of the State, and the opulence of individuals ; we boast of our riches, we cherish idleness ; no distinc- tion is made between the good and the wicked; all rewards due to merit are the price of intrigue. Why then are we astonished at this, since each man, isolat- ing himself from the rest, consults only his own in- terest ? At home, the slaves of pleasure ; here, of wealth or of favour. 1 ' ( 2 ) The elections had for a long time been the result of a shameless traffic, where every mean of success was allowable. Lucullus himself, to obtain the gov- (') "We see how far are carried the jealousy and animosity which the vir- tue and activity of the new men light up in the heart of certain nobles. If we turn away our eyes never so little, what snares do they not lay for us ! One would say that they were of another nature, another kind, so much are their feelings and wishes opposed to ours." (Cicero, Second Prosecution of Verres, v. 71.) "The nobility transmitted from hand to hand this supreme dignity (the consulship), of which they were in exclusive possession. Every new man, whatever his renown and the glory of his deeds, appeared unworthy of this honour ; he was as if sullied by the stain of his birth." (Sallust, Ju- ffurlha, G3.) ( 2 ) Sallust, Oatilina, 52. 684-691. 309 eminent of Asia, did not blush to have recourse to the good offices of a courtesan, the mistress of Cethe- gus. ( J ) The sale of consciences had so planted it- self in public morals, that the several instruments of electoral corruption had functions and titles almost recognised. Those who bought votes were called di- visores ; the go-betweens were interpreted ; * and those with whom was deposited the purchase money ( 2 ) were sequestres. Numerous secret societies were formed for making a trade of the right of suffrage ; they were divided into decuries, the several heads of Avhich obeyed a supreme head, who treated with the : " candidates and sold the votes of the associates, either for money, or on the stipulation of certain advantages for himself or his friends. These societies carried most of the elections, and Cicero himself, who so often boasted of the unanimity with which he had been chosen consul, owed to them a great part of the suf- frages he obtained. ( 3 ) C 1 ) Plutarch, Lucullus, 9. (*) Cicero, First Prosecution of Verres, 8, 9, 12; Second Prosecution, i. 29, Pseudo-Asconius, On the First Prosecution of Verres, page 145, edit. Orelli. The orations of Cicero are full of allusions to these agents for the purchase of votes and judges. ( 3 ) "In these later years, the men who make a trade of intriguing in elec- ,ions have been enabled, by diligence and address, to obtain from the citizens jf their tribes all that they chose to demand. Endeavour, by any means you vill, to make these men serve you sincerely and with the steadfast will to suc- :eed. You would obtain it if men were as grateful as they ought to be ; and ou will obtain it, I am afraid, since, for two years, four societies of those most nfluential in elections those of Marcus Fundanius, Quintus Gallius, Gaius Cornelius, and Gaius Orcivius have engaged themselves for you. I was pres- ent when the causes of these men were entrusted to you, and I know what was iromised to you, and what guarantees have been given to you by their asso- iates." (On the Petition for the Consulship addressed to Cicero by his brother s, 5.) 310 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^SAR. All the sentences of the tribunals composed of s< ators were dictated by a venality so flagrant, that Cicero brands it in these terms : " I will demonstrate by positive proofs the guilty intrigues, the infamies which have sullied the judicial powers for the ten years that they have been entrusted to the Senate. The Roman people shall learn from me how the knightly order has administered justice for nearly fif- ty consecutive years, without the faintest suspicion resting on any of its members of having received money for a judgment delivered ; how, since senators alone have composed our tribunals, since the people have been despoiled of the right which they had over each of us, Q. Calidius has been able to say, after his condemnation, that they could not honestly require less than 300,000 sestertii to condemn a praetor ; how, when the senator P. Septimius was found guilty of embezzlement before the praetor Hortensius, the mon- ey he had received in his quality of judge was in- cluded in his fine ; how C. Herennius and C. Popilius, both senators, having been convicted of the crime of peculation, and M. Atilius of the crime of high trea- son, it was proved that they had received money as the price of one of their sentences ; how it was found that certain senators, when their names were taken from the urn held by C. Verres, then praetor urbanus, instantly went to vote against the accused, without having heard the suit ; how, finally, we have seen a senator, judge in this same suit, receive money from the accused to distribute to the other judges, and money from the accuser to condemn the accused. Can I, then, sufficiently deplore this blot, this shame, 684691. this calamity which weighs on the whole or- der ?"(') Notwithstanding the severity of the laws against the avidity of the generals and farmers of the reve- nues, notwithstanding the patronage of the great at Eome, the conquered peoples ( 2 ) were always a prey to the exactions of the magistrates, and Verres was a type of the most shameless immorality, which drew this exclamation from Cicero : " All the provinces groan ; all free peoples lament ; all the kingdoms cry out against our cupidity and our violence. There is not between the Ocean and ourselves a spot so re- mote or so little known that the injustice and tyran- ny of our fellow-citizens of these days have not pene- trated to it." ( 3 ) The inhabitants of foreign countries were obliged to borrow, either to satisfy the immod- erate demands of their governors and their retinue, or to pay the farmers of the public revenues. Now, capital being nowhere but at Rome, they could only procure it at an excessive rate of interest ; and the nobles, giving themselves up to usury, held the prov- inces in their power. The army itself had been demoralised by civil wars, and the chiefs no longer maintained discipline. " Fla- ( 1 ) Cicero, First Prosecution of Verres, 13. ( 2 ) " Each city of the conquered peoples has a patron at Rome." (Appian, Civil Wars, II. 4.) ( 3 ) Cicero, Second Prosecution of Verres, III. 89. Cicero adds in a letter, "We may judge, by the sufferings of our own fellow-citizens, of what the in- habitants of the provinces have to endure from the public farmers (publicani}. When several tolls were suppressed in Italy, remonstrances were made not so much against the principle of taxation as against abuses in levying it, and the cries of the Romans on the soil of the country tell only too plainly what must be the fate of the allies at the extremity of the empire." (Letters to Quintus, 1.1, 33.) 312 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. mininus, Aquilius, Paulus JEmilius," says Dio Cassius, " commanded men well disciplined, who had learnt to execute the orders of their generals in silence. The law was their rule ; with a royal soul, simple in life, bounding their expenses within reasonable limits, they held it more shameful to natter the soldiery than to fear the enemy. From the time of Sylla, on the con- trary, the generals, raised to the first rank by violence and not by merit, forced to turn their arms against each other rather than against the enemy, were reduced to court popularity. Charged with the command, they squandered gold to procure enjoyments for an army, the fatigues of which they paid dearly ; they rendered their country venal, without caring for it ; and made themselves the slaves of the most depraved men, to bring under their authority those who were worth more than themselves. This is what drove Marius out of Rome, and led him back against Sylla ; this is what made Cinna the* murderer of Octavius, and Fim- bria the murderer of Flaccus. Sylla was the princi pal cause of these evils, he who, to seduce the soldiers enrolled under other chiefs, and bring them under his own flag, scattered gold in handfuls among his army." (') Far were they from the times when the soldier, aft- er a short campaign, laid down his arms to take up the plough again ; since then, retained under his standards for long years, and returning in the train of a victorious general to vote in the Campus Mar- tius, the citizen had disappeared ; there remained the warrior, with the sole inspiration of the camp. At ('_) Dio Cassius, 86 ; Fragments, CCCI. edit. Gros. 684-691 313 the end of the expeditions, the array was disbanded, and Italy thus found itself overrun with an immense number of veterans, united in colonies or dispersed over the territory, more inclined to- follow a leader than to obey the law. The veterans of the ancient legions of Marius and Sylla were to be counted by hundreds of thousands. A State, moreover, is often weakened by an exag- geration of the principle on which it rests; and as war was the chief occupation at Rome, all the institu- tions had originally a military character. The con- suls, the first magistrates of the Republic, elected by centuries that is to say, by the people voting under arms commanded the troops. The army, composed of all there was most honourable in the nation, did not take an oath to the Republic, but to the chief who recruited it and led it against the enemy ; this oath, religiously kept, rendered the generals the abso- lute masters of their soldiers, who, in their turn, de- creed to them the title of Imperator after a victory: what more natural, then, even after the transformation of society, than that these soldiers should believe themselves the real people, and the generals elected by them the legitimate chiefs of the Republic ? Ev- ery abuse has deep roots in the past, and we may find the original cause of the power of the praetorians un- der the emperors in the primitive organisation and functions of the centuries established by Servius Tul- lius. Although the army had not as yet acquired this preponderance, it nevertheless weighed heavily on the decisions of the Forum. By the side of men habitu- 14 314 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^ESAK. ated to the noble chances of the fight existed a true army of turbulence, kept at the expense of the State or of private persons, in the principal towns of Italy above all, at Capua : these were the gladiators, ever ready to undertake anything for those who paid them, either in the electoral contests (*) or as soldiers in the times of civil war. ( 2 ) Thus all was struck with decadence. Brute force bestowed power, and corruption the magistracies. The empire no longer belonged to the Senate, but to the commanders of the armies ; the armies no longer belonged to the Kepublic, but to the chiefs who led them to victory. Numerous elements of dissolution afflicted society : the venality of the judges, the traffic in elections, the absolutism of the Senate, the tyranny of wealth, which oppressed the poor by usury, and braved the law with impunity. Rome found herself divided into two thoroughly distinct parties ; the one, seeing salvation only in the past, attached itself to abuses, in the fear that to dis- place one stone would be to shatter the whole edi- fice ; the other wished to consolidate it by rendering the base larger and the summit less unsteady. The first party supported itself on the institutions of Syl- la ; the second had taken the name of Marius as the symbol of its hopes. Great causes need an historical figure to personify their interests and tendencies. The man once adopt- ed, his faults, his very crimes are forgotten, and his great deeds alone remembered. Thus, the vengeance (') Cicero, On Duties, II. 17; Letters to Quintus, II. 6, 4. Plutarch, Bru- tus, U. (=) Floras, III. 21. 684-691. 315 and massacres of Marius had faded away from mem- ory at Rome. Only his victories, which had preserved Italy from the invasions of the Cimbri and the Teu- tones, were recalled ; his misfortunes were pitied, his hatred to the aristocracy vaunted. The preferences of public opinion were clearly manifested by the lan- guage of the orators, even those most favourable to the Senate. Thus Catulus and Cicero, speaking of Sylla or of Marius, the tyranny of both of whom had been substantially almost equally cruel, thought them- selves obliged to glorify the one and to brand the oth- er ; (') yet the legislation of Sylla was still in full vig- our, his party omnipotent that of Marius dispersed and powerless. ( 2 ) The struggle, which was perse veringly continued for sixty-three years against the Senate, had never succeeded, because the defence of the people had nev- er been placed in hands either sufficiently strong or sufficiently pure. To the Gracchi had been wanting an army; to Marius a power less disgraced by ex- cesses; to the war of the allies a character less hos- tile to the national unity of which Rome was the rep- resentative. As to Spartacus, by rousing the slaves he went beyond his aiin, and his success threatened (') " The name of C. Marius of that great man who we may justly call the father of the country, the regenerator of our liberty, the saviour of the Repub- lic." (Cicero, Speech for Rabirius, 10.) "I have, as your guarantee, your in- dignation against Sylla." (Dio Cassius, XXXVI. 17, Oration of Catulus to the Senate.) "Where can we find a personage (Marius) more serious, more firm, more distinguished by courage, circumspection, conscience ?" (Cicero, Speech for Balbus, 25.) "Not only do we suffer his acts (Sylla's), but to prevent worse disasters, greater ills, we give them the sanction of public authority." (Cicero, Second Prosecution qfVerres, III. 35.) ( 2 ) Tlutarch, Caesar, 6. 316 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. the whole of society; he was annihilated. To tri- umph over a long accumulation of prejudices, the popular cause needed a chief of transcendent merit, arid a concurrence of circumstances difficult to foresee. But then the genius of Caesar was not yet revealed, and the vanquisher of Sertorius was the only one who dominated the situation by his antecedents and high achievements. II. By a line of conduct quite opposite to that of consulship of pom- CflBsaT, Pompey had greatly risen during the civil wars. From the age of twenty- three he had received from Sylla the title oflmpem- tor, and the name of " Great ;" ( l ) he passed for the first warrior of his time, and had distinguished him- self in Italy, Sicily, and Africa against the partisans of Marius, whom he caused to be pitilessly massa- cred. ( 2 ) Fate had ever favoured him. In Spain, the death of Sertorius had made victory easy to him ; on his return, the fortuitous defeat of the fugitive re- mains of the army of Spartacus allowed him to as- sume the honour of having put an end to that formi- dable insurrection ; soon he will profit by the success already obtained by Lucullus against Mithridates. Thus a distinguished writer has justly said that Pom- pey always came in time to terminate, to his own glory, the wars which were just going to end to the glory of another. ( 3 ) ( l ) Plutarch, Pompey, 12. ( s ) Pompey slew Carbo, Perpenna, and Brutus, the father of the assassin of Caesar, who had yielded themselves to him : the first had protected his youth and saved his patrimony. (Valerius Maximus, V. iii. v.) ( 3 ) Count Franz de Champagny, Les Casars, I. p. 50. 684 C91. 317 The vulgar, who hail good fortune as the equal of genius, surrounded then the conqueror of Spain with their homage, and he himself, of a poor and vain spir- it, referred the favours of fortune to his own sole mer- it. Seeking power for ornament rather than service, he courted it not in the hope of making a cause or a principle triumphant, but to enjoy it peaceably by trimming between different parties. Thus, whilst to Caesar power was a means, to him it was only the end. Honest, but vacillating, he was unconsciously the instrument of those who flattered him. His court- eous manners, and the show of disinterestedness which disguised his ambition, removed all suspicions of his aspiring to the supreme power. (') An able general in ordinary times, he was great only while events were not greater than he. Nevertheless, he then en- joyed the highest reputation at Rome. By his ante- cedents he was rather the representative of the party of the aristocracy ; but the desire of conciliating pub- lic favour, and his own intelligence, made him com- prehend the necessity of certain modifications in the laws : thus, before entering Rome to celebrate his tri- umph over the Celtiberians, he manifested the inten- tion of re-establishing the prerogative of the tribunes, of putting an end to the devastation and oppression of the provinces, of restoring impartiality to justice, and respect to the judges. ( 2 ) He was then consul- (') "It was in his character to show little regard for what he was ambitious to obtain." (Dio Cassius, XXXVI. 7.) "Pompey, with a heart as depraved as his face was pure.'' (Sallust, Fragments, II. 176.) ( 2 ) "At last, when Pompey, haranguing the people for the first time at the gates of the city, in his capacity of consul-designate, came to treat of the mat- ter which seemed to have been most ardently expected, and let it be under- 318 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. elect ; his promises excited the most lively enthusi- asm ; for it was the evil administration of the prov- inces, and the venality of the senators in their judicial functions, which more than all else made the people demand so ardently the re-establishment of the priv- ileges of the tribuneship, notwithstanding the abuses which they had engendered. (*) Excesses in power always give birth to an immoderate desire for lib- erty. In publishing the programme of his conduct, of his own free will, before entering Rome, Pompey did not yield to a fascination cleverly exerted over him by Caesar, as several historians pretend; he obeyed a stronger impulse, that of public opinion. The nobles reproached him w4th having abandoned their cause, ( 2 ) but the popular party was satisfied, and Caesar, seeing the new consul take his ideas and sentiments to heart, resolved to support him energetically. ( 3 ) Doubtless, he thought that with so many elements of corruption, so much contempt of the laws, so many jealous rival- ries, and so much boundless ambition, the ascendency stood that he would re-establish the power of the tribunes, he was received with applause, and a slight murmur of assent ; but when he added that the prov- inces were devastated and oppressed, the tribunals disgraced, the judges without shame, and that he wished to be watchful of these abuses, and to restore good order, then it was not by a simple murmur, but by unanimous acclamations, that the people testified their desires. ' ' (Cicero, First Prosecution of I'erres, 15.) (') Catnlus, when asked his opinion on the re-establishment of the tribuna- ry power, began in these authoritative words: "The conscript fathers admin- ister justice evilly and scandalously ; and if, in the tribunals, they had but an- swered the expectations of the Roman people, the power of the tribunes would not have been so warmly regretted." (Cicero, First Prosecution ofVerres, 15.) ( 2 ) "His enemies had nothing else to reproach him with than the preference which he gave to the people over the Senate." (Plutarch, I'ompcy, 20.) ( 3 ) "He seconded with all his might those who wished to restore the power of the tribunes." (Suetonius, C^sar, 5.) 684 G91. 319 of him whom fortune had raised so high could alone, for the time, assist the destinies of the Republic. Was this a loyal co-operation ? We believe so, but it did not exclude a noble rivalry, and Csesar could not be afraid of smoothing for Pompey the platform on which they must one day meet. The man who understands his own worth has no perfidious jealousy against those who have preceded him in his career; rather, he goes to their aid, for then he has more glo- ry in rejoining them. Where would be the emula- tion of the contest if one was alone in the power of attaining the end ? Pompey's colleague was M. Licinius Crassus. This remarkable man, as we have seen, had distinguished himself as a general, but his influence was owing rath- er to his wealth and his amiable and courteous dispo- sition. Enriched under Sylla by purchasing the prop- erty of the proscribed, he possessed whole quarters of the city of Rome, rebuilt after several fires ; his for- tune was more than forty millions of francs [a million and a half sterling], (') and he pretended that to be rich, one must be able to maintain an army at his own expense. ( 2 ) Though his chief passion was the love of gold, avarice did not with him exclude liberal- ity. He lent to all his friends without interest, and sometimes scattered his largesses with profusion. Versed in letters, gifted with a rare eloquence, he ac- cepted eagerly all the causes which Pompey, Caesar, and Cicero disdained to defend ; by his eagerness to oblige all those who claimed his services, either to (') 7,100 talents. (Plutarch, Crassus, 1.) ( 3 ) Plutarch, Crassus, 2. Cicero, On Duties, I. 8. 320 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^SAR. borrow, or to obtain some situation, he acquired a power which balanced that of Pompey. This last had accomplished greater deeds, but his airs of grand- eur and dignity, his habit of avoiding crowds and sights, alienated the multitude from him ; while Cras- sus, of easy access, always in the midst of the public and of business, had the advantage over him by his affable manners. ( J ) We do not find very defined principles in him, either in political or private life ; he was neither a constant friend nor an irreconcilable en- emy. ( 2 ) Fitter to serve as an instrument for the ele- vation of another, than to elevate himself to the front rank, he was very useful to Caesar, who did his best to gain his confidence. "There existed then at Rome," says Plutarch, " three factions, the chiefs of which were Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus ; Cato, whose power did not equal his glory, was more admired than followed. The wise and moderate part of the citizens were for Pompey ; energetic, speculative, and bold men attach- ed themselves to the hopes of Caesar ; Crassus, who held the mean between these two factions, used both." ( 3 ) During his first consulship, Crassus seems to have been only occupied with extravagant expenditure, and to have preserved a prudent neutrality. He made a grand sacrifice to Hercules, and consecrated to him the tenth part of his revenues ; he gave the people an enormous feast, spread out on ten thousand tables, and bestowed com for three months to every citi- zen. ( 4 ) (') Plutarch, Crassus, 7. (*) Plutarch, Crnssus, 8. (*) Plutarch, Crassus, 8. (*) Plutarch, CV**., 1, 16. 684-691. 321 Pompey occupied himself in more serious "matters, and, supported by Caesar, favoured the adoption of several laws, all of which announced a reaction against the system of Sylla. The effect of the first was to give the tribunes the right anew of presenting laws and appealing to the people ; already, in 679, the power of obtaining other magistracies had been restored to them. The second was connected with justice. Instead of leaving to the Senate alone the whole judicial power, the praetor Aurelius Cotta, Caesar's uncle, pro- posed a law which would conciliate all interests, by making it legal to take the judges by thirds from the three classes: that is to say, from the Senate, the equestrian order, and the tribunes of the treasury, who were for the most part plebeians. (*) But the measure which most helped to heal the wounds of the Republic was the amnesty proposed by the tribune Plotius in favour of all those who had taken part in the civil war. In this number was comprised the wreck of the army of Lepidus, which had remained in Spain after the defeat of Sertorius, and amongst which was to be found C. Cornelius Cinna, brother-in-law of Caesar. This last, in speeches which have not come down* to us, but which are quoted by different authors, spared nothing to as- sure among the people the success of the proposi- tion. ( 2 ) " He insisted on the propriety of deciding ( J ) " Cotta judicandi munus, quod C. Gracchus ereptum Senatui, nd cquitcs, Sylla ab illis ad Senatum transtulerat, aequaliter inter utrumque ordinem par- titns est." (Vclleitis Paterculus, II. 32.) ( 2 ) "Equidem mihi vidcor pro nostra necessitate, non labore, non opera, non industria dcfuisse." (Certainly, I believe I have displayed all the zeal, all 14* X 322 HISTOHY OF JULIUS OXSAR. promptly on this measure of reconciliation, and ob- served that there could not be a more opportune moment for its adoption.' 1 ' 1 ( x ) It was adopted without diffi- culty. All seemed to favour a return to the old in- stitutions. The censorship, interrupted for seventeen years, was re-established, and L. Gellius and C. Len- tulus, the censors chosen, exercised their office with so much severity, that they expelled from the Senate sixty-four of its members, probably creatures of Sylla. In the number of those expelled figured Caius Anto- nius, previously accused by Caesar, and Publius Len- tulus Sura, consul in the year 683. All these changes had been proposed or accepted by Poinpey rather to please the multitude than to obey distinct convictions. And by them he lost his true supporters in the upper classes, without gaining, in the opposite party, the foremost place, already oc- cupied by Caesar. But Pompey, blind to real worth, imagined then that no one could surpass him in in- fluence ; always favoured by circumstances, he had been accustomed to see both the arrogance of Sylla and the majesty of the laws yield before him. Not- withstanding a first refusal by the Dictator, at twen- ty-six years of age he had obtained the honours of the triumph, without havirrg fulfilled any of the legal con- ditions. Contrary to the laws, a second triumph had been accorded him, as also the consulship, though out of Rome, and without having followed the necessary order of hierarchy of the magistracies. Full of pre- the endeavour, all the ability which our kinship demands.) Cossar, quoted by Aulus Gellius, XIII. 3. Nonius Marccllus, " On the different significations of words," under the word Necessitas. (') Sallust, Fragments, I. C8. 681691. 323 sumption through the examples of the past, full of confidence in the future through the adulation of the present, he thought he might wound the interests of the nobles without alienating them, and flatter the tastes and passions of the people without losing his dignity. Towards the end of his consulship, he, the chief magistrate of the Republic, he, who thought himself above all others, presented himself as a mere soldier at the annual review of the knights. The mo- mentary effect was immense when the censors, seated on their tribunal, saw Pompey traversing the crowd, preceded by all the pomp of the consular power, and leading before them his horse, which he held by the bridle. The crowd, silent till then, burst out into transports of joy, overcome with admiration at the sight of so great a man glorifying himself for being a simple knight, and modestly submitting himself to the legal forms. But on the demand of the censors if he had made all the campaigns required by law, he an- swered, "Yes, I have made them all, never having had any other general than myself." ( ] ) The ostentation of this reply shows that this step of Pompey's was a false modesty, the most insupportable form of pride, according to the expression of Marcus Aurelius. III. Neither did Caesar disdain ceremonial ; but he sought to give it a significance which Caesar Questor (CSC). . , , . . , should make an impression upon the mind. " The opportunity soon presented itself. Soon after he was nominated questor and admitted to the Senate, he lost his aunt Julia and his wife Cornelia, (') Plutarch, Pompey, 21. 324 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. and hastened to malfts a veritable political manifesta- tion of their funeral oration. (') It was the custom at Home to pronounce a eulogy on women only when they died at an .advanced age. Caesar obtained public approbation by departing from this usage in favour of his young wife ; they saw in it, according to Plutarch, ( 2 ) a proof of sensibility and softness of man- ners; but they applauded not the family sentiment only, they glorified much more the inspiration of the politician who dared to make a panegyric on the hus- band of Julia, the celebrated Marius, whose image, in / / O ' wax, carried by Caesar's orders in the funeral proces- sion, re-appeared for the first time since the proscrip- tion of Sylla. ( 3 ) After having rendered these last honors to his wife, he accompanied, in the capacity of questor, the praetor Antistius Vetus, sent into Ulterior Spain. ( 4 ) The peninsula was then divided into two great prov- inces : Citerior Spain, since called Tarraconensis, and Ulterior Spain, comprising Baetica and Lusitauia. ( 5 ) The positive limits, we may w r ell believe, were not very exactly determined, but at this epoch the Salt us Castulonensis, which corresponds with the Sierras Ne- vada and Cazorla, ( 6 ) was considered as such between these two provinces. To the north, the limitation could not be made any more distinct, the Asturias not being thoroughly conquered. The capital of Ul- ( l ) Plutarch, Caesar, 5. Suetonius, Ccesar, 6. ( a ) Plutarch, Casar, 5. ( 3 ) The images of _32neas, of Romulus, and of the Kings of Alba Longa also figured in the funeral canopy of the Julia family. (Tacitus, Annales, IV. 9.) (*) Plutarch, C&sar, 5. Vellcius Paterculus, II. 43. ( s ) Cicero, Oration on the Manilian Law, 12 ; For Fonteius, 2. () Caesar, Civil War, I. 87. 684-691. 325 terior Spain was Corduba (Cordova), where the prge- tor resided. (*) The chief towns, doubtless connected by military roads, formed so many centres of general meeting, where assizes for the regulation of business were held. These meetings were called conventus civium Roma- norum, ( 2 ) because the members who composed them were Roman citizens, dwelling in the country. The praetor, or his delegate, presided over them once a year. ( 3 ) Each province in Spain had several of them. In the first century of our era, there were three for Lusitania and four for Baetica. ( 4 ) Caesar, the delegate of the praetor, visited these towns, presiding over the assemblies and administer- ing justice. He was noted for his spirit of concilia- tion and equity, ( 5 ) and showed a lively solicitude for the interests of the Spaniards. ( 6 ) As the character of illustrious men is revealed in their smallest actions, it is not a matter of indifference to mention the grati- tude which Caesar always had for the good offices of Vetus. Plutarch informs us that a strict union reign- ed between them ever after, and Caesar took care to ( 1 ) "Sextus Pompeius Cordubam tencbat, quod ejus provinciae caput csse existimabatur." (Caesar, The War in Spain, III. Plutarch, Co prce- tore into Citerior Spain ; the Senate, either to get rid of him, or in the doubtful hope of finding in him some support against Pompey, whose power began to ap- pear formidable, consented to grant him this prov- ince. But in 691, on his arrival in Spain, he was slain by his escort some say by the secret emissaries of Pompey. (*) As to Catiline, he was not the man to bend under the weight of the misfortunes of his friends, or under his own losses; he employed new ardour in braving the perils of a conspiracy, and in pursuing the honours of the consulship. He was the most dangerous adversary the Senate had. Caesar supported this candidature. In a spirit of opposition, he supported all that could hurt his enemies and fa- vour a change of system. Besides, all parties were constrained to deal with those who enjoyed the pop- ular favour. The nobles accepted as candidate C. An- tonius Hybrida, a worthless man, capable only of sell- ing himself and of treachery, ( 2 ) Cicero, in 690, had promised Catiline to defend him ; ( 3 ) and a year be- fore, the Consul Torquatus, one of the most esteemed chiefs of the Senate, pleaded for the same individual accused of embezzlement. ( 4 ) (') Sallust, Catilin^ 19. (*) Plutarch; Cicero, 15. ( 3 ) "I am preparing at this moment to defend Catiline, my competitor. I hope, if I obtain his acquittal, to find him disposed to come to an understand- ing with me on our next steps. If he is against this, I will [I shall know what to do (?)] take my way." (Cicero, Letters toAtticus, I. ii.) ( 4 ) Cicero, Oration for >yfla, 29. 342 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. IX. We thus -see that the misfortunes of the times The difficulty of obliged the most notable men to have constituting a New -, -,. j 1 ,1 -i ^rty. dealings with those whose antecedents seemed to devote them to contempt. In times of transition, when a choice must be made between a glorious past and an unknown future, the rock is, that bold and unscrupulous men alone thrust themselves forward ; others, more timid, and the slaves of prejudices, remain in the shade, or offer some ob- stacle to the movement which hurries away society into new ways. It is always a great evil for a coun- try, a prey to agitations, when the party of the hon- est, or that of the good, as Cicero calls them, do not embrace the new ideas, to direct by moderating them. Hence profound divisions. On the one side, unknown men often take possession of the good or bad passions of the crowd ; on the other, honourable men, immov- able or morose, oppose all progress, and by their ob- stinate resistance - excite legitimate impatience and lamentable violence. The opposition of these last has the double inconvenience of leaving the way clear to those who are less worthy than themselves, and of throwing doubts into the minds of that floating mass, which judges parties much more by the honourable- ness of men than by the value of ideas. What was then passing in Rome offers a striking example of this. Was it not reasonable, in fact, that men should hesitate to prefer a faction which had at its head such illustrious names as Hartensius, Catu- lus, Marcellus, Lucullus, and Cato, to that which had for its main-stays individuals like Gabinius, Manilius, Catiline, Vatinius, and Clodius? What more legiti- 684-691. 343 mate in the eyes of the descendants of the ancient families than this resistance to all change, and this disposition to consider all reform as Utopian and al- most as sacrilege ? What more logical for them than to admire Cato's firmness of soul, who, still young, al- lowed himself to be menaced with death rather than admit the possibility of becoming one day the de- fender of the cause of the allies claiming the rights of Roman citizens ? ( x ) How not comprehend the sentiments of Catulus and Hortensius obstinately de- fending the privileges of the aristocracy, and mani- festing their fears at this general inclination to con- centrate all power in the hands of one individual ? And yet the cause maintained by these men was condemned to perish, as everything which has had its time. Notwithstanding their virtues, they were only an additional obstacle to the steady march of civilisation, because they wanted the qualities most essential for a time of revolution an appreciation of the wants of the moment, and of the problems of the future. Instead of trying what they could save from the shipwreck of the ancient regime, just breaking to pieces against a fearful rock, the corruption of politic- al morals, they refuse to admit that the institutions to which the Republic owed its grandeur could bring about its decay. Terrified at all innovation, they confounded in the same anathema the seditious en- terprises of certain tribunes, and the just reclamations of the citizens. But their influence was so considera- ble, and ideas coftsecrated by time have so much em- pire over minds, that they would have yet hindered ( l ) Plutarch, Cato, 3. 344 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. the triumph of the popular cause, if Caesar, in putting himself at its head, had not given it a new glory and an irresistible force. A party, like an army, can only conquer with a chief worthy to command it ; and all those who, since the Gracchi, had unfurled the stand- ard of reform, had sullied it with blood, and compro- mised it by revolts. Caesar raised and purified it. To constitute his party, it is true, he had recourse to agents but little estimated; the best architect can build only with the materials under his hand; but his constant endeavour was to associate to himself the most trustworthy men, and he spared no effort to gain by turns Pompey, Crassus, Cicero, Servilius Csepio, Q. Fufius Calenus, Serv. Sulpicius, and many others. In moments of transition, when the old system is at an end, and the new not yet established, the great- est difficulty consists, not in overcoming the obstacles which are in the way of the advent of a regime de- manded by the country, but to establish the latter solidly, by establishing it upon the concurrence of honourable men penetrated with the new ideas, and steady in their principles. CHAPTER m. (691-695.) I. IN the year 690, the candidates for the consul- ciceroaudAntoni. ^P were Cicero, C. Antonius Hybrida, us, consuls (691, R Cagsius LoDginus, Q. Cornificius, C. Lu- cinius Sacerdos, P. Sulpicius Galba, and Catiline. (*) Informed of the plots so long in progress, the Senate determined to combat the conspiracies of the last by throwing all the votes they could dispose of upon Cicero, who was thus unanimously elected, and took possession of his office at the beginning of 691. This choice made up for the mediocrity of his colleague Antonius. The illustrious orator, whose eloquence had such authority, was born at Arpinum, of obscure parents ; he had served some time in the war of the allies ; ( 2 ) afterwards, his orations acquired for him a great repu- tation, amongst others the defence of the young Rosci- us, whom the dictator would have despoiled of his paternal heritage. After the death of Sylla, he was appointed questor and sent to Sicily. In 684, he lashed with his implacable speech the atrocities of Verres ; at last, in 688, he obtained the praetorship, and displayed in this capacity those sentiments of high probity and of justice which distinguished him (') Asconius, Cicero's Oration, "In Toga Candida," p. 82, edit. OrellL ( z ) Plutarch, Cicero, 3. 15* 346 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. throughout his whole career. But the esteem of his fellow-citizens would not have sufficed, in ordinary times, to have raised him to the first magistracy. "The dread of the conspiracy," says Sallust, " was the cause of his elevation. Under other circumstances, the pride of the nobility would have revolted against such a choice. The consulship would have been considered profaned* if, even with superior merit, a new man ( ] ) had obtained it ; but, on the approach of danger, envy and pride became silent." ( 2 ) The Koman aristocracy must have greatly lost its influence, when, at a critical moment, it allowed a new man to possess more au- thority over the people than one from its own ranks. By birth, as well as by his instincts, Cicero belonged to the popular party ; nevertheless, the irresolution of his mind, sensible to flattery, and his fear of innova- tions, led him to serve by turn the rancours of the great or those of the people. ( 3 ) Of upright heart, but pusillanimous, he only saw rightly when his self- esteem was not at stake or his interest in danger. Elected consul, he ranged himself on the side of the Senate, and resisted all proposals advantageous to the multitude. Caesar honoured his talent, but had little confidence in his character; hence he was averse to (') They called new men those who amongst their ancestors counted none that had held a high magistracy. (Appian, Civil Wars, II. 2.) Cicero also confirms this fact : "I am the first new man that, for a great number of years, is remembered to have been appointed consul ; and this eminent post, in which the nobility were in a manner entrenched, and to which they had closed all the avenues, you have, to place me at your head, forced the barriers ; yon have de- sired that merit henceforth find them open." (Cicero, Second Oration on the Agrarian Law, 1.) ( 3 ) Sallust, Catiline, 23. (*) " Cicero favoured sometimes the one, sometimes the other, to be sought after by both parties." (Dio Cassins, XXXVI. 26.) 691695. 347 his candidature, and hostile during the whole of his consulship. II. Scarcely had Cicero entered on his functions, Agrarian Law of when the tribune P. Servilius Rullus re- vived one of those projects which, for ages, have had the effect of exciting to the highest de- gree both the avidity of the proletaries and the anger of the Senate : it was an agrarian law. It contained the following provisions : To sell, with certain exceptions, ( a ) the territories recently conquer- ed, and some other domains but little productive to the State; devoting the proceeds to the purchase, by private contract, of lands in Italy which were to be divided among the indigent citizens ; to cause to be nominated, according to the customary mode for the election of grand pontiff that is, by seventeen tribes, drawn by lot from the thirty-five ten commissioners or decemvirs, to whom should be left, for five years, the power, absolute and without control, of distribu- ting or alienating the domains of the Republic and pri- vate properties wherever they liked. No one could be appointed who was not present in Rome, which excluded Pompey, and the authority of the decemvirs was to be sanctioned by a curiate law. To them alone was intrusted the right to decide what belonged to the State and what to individuals. The lands of the public domain which should not be alienated were to be charged with a considerable impost. ( 2 ) The de- (*) Second Oration on the Agrarian Law, 25. ( s ) The territories conceded by a treaty being excepted, which freed from this obligation the African territory, which had become, since Scipio, the property of the Republic, arid given by Pompey to Hiempsal. In Campania 348 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. cemvirs had also the power of compelling all the gen- erals, Pompey excepted, to account for the booty and money received during war, but not yet deposited in the treasury, or employed upon some monument. They were allowed to found colonies anywhere they thought proper, particularly in the territory of Stella, and in the ager of Campania, where five thousand Ro- man citizens were to be established. In a word, the administration of the revenues and the resources of the State came almost wholly into their hands ; they had, moreover, their lictors ; they could take the omens, and choose amongst the knights two hundred persons to execute their decrees in the provinces, and these were without appeal. This project offered inconveniences, but also great advantages. Rullus, certainly, was to blame for not designating all the places where he wished to estab- lish colonies ; for making two exemptions, one favour- able, the other unfavourable to Pompey ; for assign- ing to the decemvirs powers too extensive, tending to arbitrary acts and speculations : nevertheless, his proj- ect had an important political aim. The public do- main, encroached upon by usurpations or by the col- onies of Sylla, had almost disappeared. The law was to re-constitute it by the sale of conquered territories. On the other side, the lands confiscated in great num- ber by Sylla, and given or sold at a paltry price to his partisans, had suffered a general depreciation, for the ownership was liable to be contested, and they no longer found purchasers. The Republic, while desir- every colonist was obliged to have ten jugera, and, on the territory of Stella, twelve. 691695. 349 ous of relieving the poorer class, had thus an interest in raising the price of these lands and in securing the holders. The project of Rullus was, in fact, a veri- table law of indemnity. There are injustices which, sanctioned by time, ought also to be sanctioned by law, in order to extinguish the causes of dissension, by restoring their security to existing things, and its value to property. If the great orator had known how to raise him- self above the questions of person and of party, he would, like Caesar, have supported the proposal of the tribune, amending only what was too absolute or too vague in it ; but, overreached by the faction of the great, and desiring to please the knights, whose inter- ests the law injured, he attacked it with his usual elo- quence, exaggerating its defects. It would only bene- fit, he said, a small number of persons. Whilst ap- pearing to favour Pompey, it deprived him, on ac- count of his absence, of the chance of being chosen decemvir. It allowed some individuals to dispose of kingdoms like Egypt, and of the immense territories of Asia. Capua would become the capital of Italy, and Rome, surrounded by a girdle of military colo- nies devoted to ten new tyrants, would lose its inde- pendence. To purchase the lands, instead of appor- tioning the ager puUicus, was monstrous, and he could not admit that they would engage the people to aban- don the capital to go and languish in the fields. Then, exposing the double personal interest of the author of the law, he reminded them that the father-in-law of Rullus was enriched with the spoils of prescripts, and that Rullus himself had reserved the right of being nominated decemvir. 350 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^SAR. Cicero, nevertheless, pointed out clearly the political bearing of the project, although censuring it, when he said : " The new law enriches those who occupied the domain lands, and withdraws them from public indig- nation. How many men are embarrassed by their vast possessions, and cannot support the odium at- tached to the largesses of Sylla ! How many would sell them, and find no buyers ! How many seek means, of whatever kind, to dispossess themselves of them ! . . . . And you, Romans, you are going to sell those revenues which your ancestors have acquired at the cost of so much sweat and blood, to augment the fortune and assure the tranquillity of the possessors of the goods confiscated by Sylla !" ( J ) We see thus that Cicero seems to deny the neces- sity of allaying the inquietudes of the new and nu- merous acquirers of this kind of national property ; and yet, when a short time afterwards another tribune proposed to relieve from civic degradation the sons of proscripts, he opposed him, not because this repara- tion appeared to him unjust, but for fear the rehabili- tation in political rights should carry with it the re- integration into the properties, a measure, according to his views, subversive of all interests. ( 2 ) Thus, with a strange inconsistency, Cicero combated these two laws of conciliation; the one because it reassured, the other because it disquieted the holders of the ef- (') Cicero, Second Oration on the Agrarian Law, 26. ( J ) Cicero, Letters to Attictts, II. 1. Plutarch, Cicero, 17. "When young Romans, full of merit and honour, have found themselves in such a position that their admissibility to magistracies has effected the overthrow of the State, I have dared to brave their enmity, to interdict their access to the comitia and to honours." (Cicero, Oration against L. Piso. ) 691695. 351 fects of the proscribed. Why must it be that, amongst men of superiority, but without convictions, talent only too often serves to sustain with the like facility the most opposite causes ? The opinion of Cicero tri- umphed, nevertheless, thanks to his eloquence ; and the project, despite the lively adhesion of the people, encountered in the Senate such a resistance, that it was abandoned without being referred to the comitia. Caesar advocated the agrarian law, because it raised the value of the soil, put an end to the disfavour at- tached to the national property, augmented the re- sources of the treasury, prevented the extravagance of the generals, delivered Rome from a turbulent and dangerous populace by wresting it from degradation and misery. He supported the rehabilitation of the children of proscripts, because that measure, profound- ly reparative, put an end to one of the great iniquities of the past regime. There are victories which enfeeble the conquerors more than the vanquished. Such was the success of Cicero. The rejection of the agrarian law, and of the claims of the sons of proscripts, augmented consider- ably the number of malcontents. A crowd of citi- zens, driven by privations and the denial of justice, went over to swell the ranks of the conspirators, who, in the shade, were preparing a revolution ; and Caesar, pained at seeing the Senate reject that sage and ancient policy which had saved Rome from so many agitations, resolved to undermine by eveiy means its authority. For this purpose he engaged the tribune, T. Labienus, the same who was after- wards one of his best lieutenants, to get up a criminal 352 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^ESAK. accusation which was a direct attack upon the abuse of one of the prerogatives of the government. (*) III. For a long time, when internal or external Trial of RaMrius troubles were apprehended, Eome was put, so to speak, in a state of siege, by the sacramental formula, according to which the con- suls were enjoined to see that the Republic received no injury / then the power of the consuls was unlimit- ed ; ( 2 ) and often, in seditions, the Senate had profited by this omnipotence to rid itself of certain factious individuals without observing the forms of justice. The more frequent the agitations had become,- the more they had used this extreme remedy. The tri- bunes always protested ineffectually against a measure which suspended all the established laws, legalised assassination, and made Rome a battle-field. Labie- nus tried anew to blunt in the hands of the Senate so formidable a weapon. Thirty-seven years before, as will be remembered, Saturninus, the violent promoter of an agrarian law, had, by the aid of a riot, obtained possession of the Capitol; the country had been declared in danger. The tribune perished in the struggle, and the senator C. Rabirius Coasted of having killed him. Despite this long interval of time, Labienus accused Rabirius (') " They wish to deprive the Republic of all refuge, of every guarantee of safety in difficult conjunctures." (Cicero, Oration for Rabirius, 2.) (*) " This supreme power which, according to the institutions of Rome, the Senate confers upon the magistrates, consists in raising troops, in making war, in keeping to their duties, by every means, the allies and citizens ; in exercis- ing supremely, equally at Rome or abroad, both civil and military authority. In all other cases, without the express order, of the people, none of these prerog- atives arc conferred upon the consuls." (Sallust, Catiline, 29.) 691-695. 353 under an old law ofperdueUio, which did not leave to the guilty, like the law of treason, the power of vol- untary exile, but, by declaring him a public enemy, authorised against him cruel and ignominious punish- ments. (*) This procedure provoked considerable ag- itation ; the Senate, which felt the blow struck at its privileges, was unwilling to put any one to trial for the execution of an act authorised by itself. The people and the tribunes, on the contrary, insisted that the accused should be brought before a tribunal. Ev- ery passion was at work. Labienus claimed to avenge one of his uncles, massacred with Saturninus ; and he had the audacity to expose in the Campus Martius the portrait of the factious tribune, forgetting the case of Sextus Titius, condemned, on a former occasion, for the mere fact of having preserved in his house the likeness of Saturninus. ( 2 ) The affair was brought, according to ancient usage, before the decemvirs. Cae- O O ' sar, and his cousin Lucius Caesar, were designated by the praetor to perform the functions of judges. The very violence of the accusation, compared with the elo- quence of his defenders, Hortensius and Cicero, over- threw the charge of perduellio. Nevertheless, Rabiri- us, condemned, appealed to the people ; but the ani- mosity against him was so great that the fatal sen- tence was about to be irrevocably pronounced, when the praetor, Metellus Celer, devised a stratagem to ar- rest the course of justice; he carried away the stand- ard planted at the Janiculum. ( 3 ) This battered flag formerly announced an invasion of the country round (*) Cicero, Oration for Ratm-ius, 9. ( 2 ) Suetonius, Ca-sar, 12. (') Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 26, 27. z 35-i HISTORY OF JULIUS C^ESAK. \ Rome. Immediately all deliberation ceased, and the people rushed to arms. The Romans were great for- malists ; and, moreover, as this custom left to the mag- istrates the power of dissolving at their will the co- mitia, they had the most cogent motives for preserv- ing it; the assembly soon separated, and the affair was not taken up again. Caesar, nevertheless, had hoped to attain his object. He did not demand the head of Rabirius, whom, when he was subsequently dictator, he treated with favour; he only wished to show to the Senate the strength of the popular party, and to warn it that henceforth it would no more be permitted, as in the time of the Gracchi, to sacrifice its adversaries in the name of the public safety. If, on the one hand, Caesar let no opportunity es- cape of branding the former regime, on the other he was the earnest advocate of the provinces, which vain- ly looked for justice and protection from Rome. He had, for example, the same year accused of peculation C. Calpurnius Piso, consul in 687, and afterwards gov- ernor of Transpadane Gaul, and brought him to trial for having arbitrarily caused an inhabitant of that country to be executed. The accused was acquitted through the influence of Cicero ; but Caesar had shown to the Transpadanes that he was ever the representa- tive of their interests and their vigilant patron. IV. He soon received a brilliant proof of the popu- c Grand Pon- lai % ll6 enjoyed. The dignity of sover- eign pontiff, one of the most .important in the Republic, was for life, and gave great influence to the individual clothed with it, for religion mingled 691-695. 355 itself in all the public and private acts of the Eo- inans. Metellus Pius, sovereign pontiff, dying in 691, the most illustrious citizens, such as P. Servilius Isauricus, and Q. Lutatius Catulus, prince of the Senate, put themselves at the head of the ranks of candidates to replace him. Caesar also solicited the office, and, de- sirous of proving himself worthy of it, he published, at this time doubtless, a very extensive treatise on the augural law, and another on astronomy, designed to make known in Italy the discoveries of the Alex- andrian school. (*) Servilius Isauricus and Catulus, relying on their an- tecedents, and on the esteem in which they were held, believed themselves the more sure of election, because, since Sylla, the people had not interfered in the nom- ination of grand pontiff, the college solely making the election. Labienus, to facilitate Caesar's access to this high dignity, obtained a plebiscitum restoring the nomination to the suffrages of the people. This ma- noeuvre disconcerted the other competitors without discouraging them, and, as usual, they attempted to seduce the electors with rnone}^. All who held with the party of the nobles united against Caesar, who combated solicitation by solicitation, and sustained the struggle by the aid of considerable loans ; he knew how to interest in his success, according to Ap- (') Macrobius, Saturnalia, I. 16. Priscian, vi., p. 71C, edit. Putsch. Ma- crobius (/. c.) quotes the 16th book of the treatise of Caesar on the Auspices. Dio Cassius (xxxvii.) expresses himself thus : "Above all, because he had sup- ported Labienus against Rabirius, and had not voted for the death of Lentu- us." But the Greek author errs: the nomination of Caesar to the high pon- ificate took place before the conspiracy of Catiline. (See Velleius Paterculus, :i. 43.) 356 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. plan, both the poor that he had paid, and the rich from whom he borrowed. ( l ) Catulus, knowing Cae- sar to be greatly in debt, and mistaking his character, offered him a large sum to desist. He answered him that he would borrow a much greater sum of him if he would support his candidature. ( 2 ) At length the great day arrived which was to de- cide the future of Caesar ; when he started to present himself at the comitia, the most gloomy thoughts agi- tated his ardent mind, and calculating that if he should not succeed, his debts would constrain him perhaps to go into exile, he embraced his mother and said, " To-day thou wilt see me grand pontiff or a fu- gitive." ( 3 ) The most brilliant success crowned his efforts, and what added to his joy was his obtaining more votes in the tribes of his adversaries than they had in all the tribes put together. ( 4 ) Such a victory made the Senate fear whether Cae- sar, strong in his ascendency over the people, might not proceed to the greatest excesses ; but his conduct remained the same. Hitherto he had inhabited a very moderate house, in the quarter called Suburra ; nominated sovereign pontiff, he was lodged in a public building in the Via Sacra. ( fl ) This new position necessarily obliged him, indeed, to a sumptuous life, if we may judge by the luxuriousness displayed at the reception of a simple pontiff, at which he assisted as king of the sacrifices, and of which Macrobius has preserved to us the cu- 0) Appian, Cit7 Wars, II. 1, 8, 14. ( a ) Plutarch, Ccesar, 1. (') Plutarch, Caesar, 1. (*) Suetonius, Cand illustrious through recent victories, was, without any doubt, an event. He did not require long to form his estimate of the situation ; and, as he could not as yet unite (') Cicero, Letters to Atticus, 1. 19. 414 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^SAR. the masses by the realisation of a grand idea, lie thought to unite the chiefs by a common interest. All his endeavours from that time were devoted to making Pompey, Crassus, and Cicero share his ideas. The first had been rather ill disposed towards him. On his return from his campaign against Mithridates, Pompey had called Caesar his Egistheus, (') in allu- sion to the intrigue which he had had with his wife Mutia, whilst he, like Agamemnon, was making war in Asia. Resentment, on this account, usually slight enough among the Romans, soon disappeared before the exigencies of political life. As for Crassus, who had long been separated from Pompey by a jealous feeling of rivalry, it needed all Caesar's tact, and all the seduction of his manners, to induce him to become reconciled with his rival. But, to bring them both to follow the same line of conduct, it was necessary, over and above this, to tempt them with such power- ful motives as would ensure conviction. The histori- ans, in general, have given no other reason to account for the agreement of these three men than personal interest. Doubtless, Pompey 'and Crassus were not insensible to a combination that favoured their love of power and wealth ; but we ought to lend Caesar a more elevated motive, and suppose him inspired by a genuine patriotism. The condition of the Republic must have appeared thus to his comprehensive grasp of thought: The Roman dominion, stretched, like some vast figure, across the world, clasps it in her sinewy arms ; and whilst her limbs are full of life and strength, the heart (') Suetonius, Casar, 50. 693-695. 415 is wasting by decay. Unless some heroic remedy be applied, the contagion will soon spread from the cen- tre to the extremities, and the mission of Rome will remain unfinished ! Compare with the present the prosperous days of the Republic. Recollect the time Avhen envoys from foreign nations, doing homage to the policy of the Senate, declared openly that they preferred the protecting sovereignty of Rome to inde- pendence itself. Since that period, what a change has taken place ! All nations execrate the power of Rome, and yet that power preserves them from still greater evils. , Cicero is right, " Let Asia think well of it : there is not one of the woes that are bred of war and civil strife, that she would not experience did she cease to live under our laws." (*) And this ad- vice may be applied to all the countries whither the legions have penetrated. If, then, fate has willed that the nations are to be subject to the sway of a single people, it is the duty of that people, as charged with the execution of the eternal decrees, to be, towards the vanquished, as just and equitable as the Divinity, since he is as inexorable as destiny. How are we to fix a limit to the arbitrary conduct of proconsuls and propraetors, which all the laws promulgated for so many years have been powerless to check ? How put a stop to the exactions committed at all points of the empire, if a firmer and stronger direction do not ema- nate from the central power ? The Republic pursues an irregular system of encroachment, which will ex- haust its resources; it is impossible for her to fight against all nations at once, and at the same time to (') Cicero, Letters to Quintus, I. 1, 11. 416 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. maintain her allies in their allegiance, if, by unjust treatment, they are driven to revolt. The enemies of the Republic must be diminished in number by re- storing their freedom to the cities which are worthy of it, (*) and acknowledging as friends of the Roman people those nations with whom there is a chance of living in peace. ( 2 ) Our most dangerous enemies are the Gauls, and it is against this turbulent and warlike nation that all the strength of the State ought to be directed. In Italy, and under this name Cisalpine Gaul must be included, how many citizens are de- prived of political rights ! At Rome, how many of the proletaries are living on the charity either of the rich or of the State ! Why should we not extend the Roman commune as far as the Alps, and why not augment the race of labourers and soldiers by making them landowners ? The Roman people must be raised in its own eyes, and the Republic in the eyes of the world ! Absolute liberty of speech and of vote was a great benefit, when, modified by morality, and re- strained by a powerful aristocracy, it gave scope to individual faculties without damaging the general well-being; but, ever since the morality of ancient days disappeared with the aristocracy, we have seen the laws become weapons of war for the use of par- ties, the elections a traffic, the forum a battle-field ; while liberty is nothing more than a never-ending cause of weakness and decay. Our institutions cause such uncertainty in our councils, and such independ- (') Cissar, when consul and dictator, declared many foreign cities free. ( 2 ) It will be seen in the next chapter that Ctesar recognized as friends to the Roman people Auletes, king of Egypt, and Ariovistns, king of the Germans. 693695. 417 ence in our offices of State, that we search in vain for that spirit of order and control which are indispensa- .ble elements in the maintenance of so vast an empire. Without overthrowing institutions which have given five centuries of glory to the Republic, it is possible, by a close union of the most worthy citizens, to estab- lish in the State a moral authority, which governs the passions, tempers the laws, gives a greater stability to power, directs the elections, maintains the representa- tives of the Roman people in their duty, and frees us from the two most serious dangers of the present : the selfishness of the nobles and the turbulence of the mob. This is what they may realise by their union ; their disunion, on the contrary, will only encourage the fatal conduct of these men who are endangering the future equally, some by their opposition, the oth- ers by their headlong violence. These considerations must have been easily under- stood by Pompey and Crassus, who had themselves been actors in such great events, witnesses of so much blood shed in civil wars, of so many noble ideas, tri- umphing at one moment and overthrown the next. They accepted Caesar's proposal, and thus was con- cluded an alliance which is wrongly termed the First Triumvirate. (*) As for Cicero, Caesar tried to per- suade him to join the compact which had just been formed, but he refused to become one of w^hat he (') Duumvirs, decemvirs,, vigintivirs were the names given to magistrates who shared the same duties in boards of two, ten, or twenty. In the present case, however, the object was only to bind together the men of the greatest import- ance by a secret bond. Therefore the word triumvirate would be a misno- mer. 18* DD 418 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. termed a party of friends. ( a ) Always uncertain in his conduct, always divided between his admiration for those who held the sovereign power, and his en- gagements with the oligarchy, and uneasy for the fu- ture which his foresight could not penetrate, he set his mind to work to prevent the success of every meas- ure which he approved as soon as it had succeeded. The alliance which these three persons ratified by their oaths, ( 2 ) remained long a secret ; and it was only during Caesar's consulship that it became matter of public notoriety from the unanimity they displayed in all their political resolutions. Caesar, then, set en- ergetically to work to unite in his own favour every chance that could render his election certain. IV. Among the candidates was L. Lucceius. Caesar was desirous of attaching to his cause Caesar's Election. T-I-ITI this person, who was distinguished alike by his writings and his character, ( 3 ) and who, pos- sessed of vast wealth, had promised to make abun- dant use of it for their common profit, in order to com- mand the majority of votes in the centuries. " The aristocratic faction," says Suetonius, " on learning this arrangement, was seized with fear. They thought that there was nothing which Caesar would not at- tempt in the exercise of the sovereign magistracy, if he had a colleague who agreed with him, and who would support all his designs." ( 4 ) The nobles, una- 0) " He wished me to join these three intimate consular men." (Cicero, Oration on the Consular Provinces, 17.) (") Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 57. (') Cicero, Familiar Letters, V. 12. (*) Suetonius, Casar, 19. Eutropius, VI. 14. Plutarch, C; 1.3. 693695. 419 ble to eject him, resolved to give him Bibulus for a colleague, who had already been his colleague in the edileship and the praatorship, and had constantly shown himself his opponent. They all made a pe- cuniary contribution to influence the elections ; Bibu- lus spent large sums, (*) and the incorruptible Cato himself, who had solemnly sworn to impeach any one who should be guilty of bribery, contributed his quo- ta, owning that for the interest of the State his prin- ciples must for once yield. ( 2 ) Neither was Cicero more inflexible: some time before, he expressed to Atticus the necessity of purchasing the concurrence of the equestrian order. ( 3 ) We can see how even the most honourable were swept along, by the force of events, in the current of a corrupt society. By the force of public opinion, and by the support of the two men of greatest influence, Caesar was elect- ed consul unanimously, and conducted, according to custom, from the Campus Martius to his own house by an enthusiastic crowd of his fellow-citizens, and a vast number of senators. ( 4 ) If the party opposed to CaBsar had been unable to stand in the way of his becoming consul, it did not despair of preventing his playing the important part he had a right to expect as proconsul. To effect this, the Senate determined to evade the law of Caius Grac- (') Suetonius, Ctesar, 19. ( 2 ) Plutarch, Cato, 26. Suetonius, 19. ( 3 ) " But will you say that we can only have the knights on our side by pay- ing for them ? What are we to do ? Have we a choice of means ?" (Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 1.) (*) "Inde domum repetes toto comitante senatu, Officium populi vix capiente domo." Ovid, Ex Ponto, IV. Epist. 4. 420 HISTOKY OF JULIUS C^SAR. chus, which, to prevent the assignment of provinces from personal considerations, provided that it should take place before the coinitia were held. The assem- bly, therefore, departing from the rule, assigned to Cae- sar and his colleague, by an act of flagrant ill-will, the supervision of the public roads and forests ; an office somewhat similar, it is true, to that of governor of a province..^ 1 ) This humiliating appointment, proof as it was of a persevering hostility, wounded him deep- ly ; but the duties of his new office imposed silence upon his resentments. Caesar the consul would for- get the wrongs done to Caesar the man, and generous- ly attempt a policy of conciliation. (') Suetonius, Caesar, 19. CHAPTER V. CONSULSHIP OF C^SAR AND BIBULTJS. (695.) I. C^ESAK has arrived at the first magistracy of the Attempts a tconcii- Republic. Consul with Bibulus at the age of forty-one, he has not yet acquired the just celebrity of Ponrpey, nor does Jbe enjoy the treasures of Crassus, and yet his influence is perhaps greater than that of those two personages. Political influence, indeed, does not depend solely on military successes or on the possession of immense riches ; it is acquired especially by a conduct always in accord with fixed convictions. Caesar alone represents a prin- ciple. From the age of eighteen, he has faced the an- ger of Sylla and the hostility of the aristocracy, in order to plead unceasingly the grievances of the op- pressed and the lights of the provinces. So long as he is not in power, being exempt from responsibility, he walks invariably in the way he has traced, listens to no compromise, pursues unsparingly the adherents of the opposite party, and maintains his opinions energetically, at the risk of wounding his ad- versaries ; but, once consul, he lays aside all resent- ment, and makes a loyal appeal to all who will rally round him ; he, declares to the Senate that he will not act without its concurrence, that he will propose noth- 422 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. ing contrary to its prerogatives. ( J ) He offers his col- league Bibulus a generous reconciliation, conjuring him, in the presence of the senators, to put a term to differences of opinion, the effects of which, already so much to be regretted during their common edileship and prsetorship, would become fatal in their new po- sition. ( 2 ) He makes advances to Cicero, and, after sending Cornelius Balbus to him in his villa of An- tium to assure him that he is ready to follow his coun- sels and those of Pompey, offers to take him as an as- sociate in his labours. ( 3 ) Caesar must have believed that these offers of co- operation would be embraced. In face of the perils of a society deeply agitated, he supposed that others had the same sentiments which animated himself. Love of the public good, and the consciousness of having entirely devoted himself to it, gave him that confidence without reserve in the patriotism of others which admits neither mean rivalries nor the calcula- tions of selfishness: he was deceived. The Senate showed nothing but prejudices, Bibulus, but rancours, Cicero, but a false pride. It was essential for Caesar to unite Pompey, who was wanting in firmness of character, more closely with his destinies; he gave him in marriage his daughter Julia, a young woman of twenty-three years of age, richly endowed with graces and intelligence, who had already been affianced to Servilius Caepio. (') Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 1. ( 2 ) Appian, Civil Wars, II. 10. (*) Cicero, Epistles to Atticus, II. 3. "When consul, he wished me to take part in the operations of his consulship. Without approving them, I felt nev- ertheless grateful to him for his deference." (Oration on the Consular Piov- inces, 17.) CONSULSHIP OF C2ESAR AND BIBULUS. 423 To compensate the latter, Pompey promised him his own daughter, though she also was engaged to an- other, to Faustus, the son of Sylla. Soon afterwards Caesar espoused Calpurnia, the daughter of Lucius Piso. (') Cato protested energetically against these marriages, which he qualified as disgraceful traffics with the common weal. ( 2 ) The nobles, and especial- ly the two Curios, made themselves the echoes of this reprobation. Their party, nevertheless, did not neg- lect to strengthen themselves by such alliances Doubtless, when Cato gave his daughter to Bibulus, it was for a political motive ; and when he ceded his own wife to Hortensius, ( 3 ) although the mother of three children, to take her back again when enriched by the death of her last husband, there was also an interest hardly honourable, which Caesar subsequent- ly unveiled in a book entitled Anti-Cato. (*) The first care of the new consul was to establish the practice of publishing daily the acts of the Senate and those of the people, in order that public opinion might bear with all its weight upon the resolutions of the conscript fathers, whose deliberations had pre- viously been often secret. ( 5 ) The initiative taken by Caesar from the commencement of his consulship, in questioning the senators on the projects of laws, is an evidence that he had the fasces before Bibulus. We know, in fact, that the consuls enjoyed this honour alternately for a month, and it was in the period (*) Plutarch, Ctcsar, 14. Suetonius, Ccesar,2l. ( 2 ) Plutarch, Casar, 14. ( 3 ) Plutarch, Cato, 24. ( 4 ) Plutarch, Cato, 59. ( s ) Suetonius, Ccesar, 20. . 424 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. when they were invested with the signs distinctive of power that they were permitted to ask the advice of the senators. (') II. He proposed next, in the month of January, an agrarian law founded upon wise princi- ples, and which respected all legitimate rights. The following were its principal provisions: Partition of all the free part of the ager publicus, except that of Campania and that of Volaterrse ; the first excepted originally on account of its great fertil- ity, ( 2 ) and the second guaranteed to all those who had got it into their possession. ( 3 ) In case of insuf- ficiency of territory, new acquisitions, by means either of money coming from Pompey's conquests, or from the overplus of the public revenues. Prohibition of all appropriation by force. The nomination of twen- ty commissioners to preside at the distribution of the lands, with exclusion of the author of the proposal. Estimate of private lands for sale, made according to the declaration at the last census, and not according to the valuation of the commissioners. Obligation upon each senator to swear obedience to the law, and to engage never to propose anything contrary to it. It was, as may be seen, the project of Rullus, re- lieved from the inconveniences pointed out with so much eloquence by Cicero. In fact, instead of ten commissioners, Caesar proposed twenty, in order to distribute among a greater number a power of which men feared the abuse. He himself, to avoid all sus- (') Titus Livius, IX. 8. ( 3 ) Appian, Civil Wars, II. 7. ( 3 ) Cicero, Familiar Letters, XIII. 4. CONSULSHIP OF CAESAR AND BIBULUS. 425 picion of personal interest, excluded himself from the possibility of forming part of it. The commissioners were not, as in the law of Rullus, authorised to act according to their will, and tax the properties arbi- trarily. Acquired rights were respected ; those terri- tories only were distributed of which the State had still the full disposal. The sums arising from Porn- pey's conquests were to be employed in favour of the old soldiers ; and Caesar said himself that it was just to give the profit of that money to those who had gained it at the peril of their lives. (*) As to the ob- ligation of the oath imposed upon the senators, it was not an innovation, but an established custom. In the present case, the law having been voted before the elections, all the candidates, and especially the tri- bunes of the following year, had to take the engage- ment to observe it. ( 2 ) " Nobody," says Dio Cassius, ( 3 ) " had reason for complaint on this subject. The population of Rome, the excessive increase of which had been the princi- pal aliment of seditions, was called to labour and a country life ; the greater part of the countries of Ita- ly, which had lost their inhabitants, were re-peopled. This law insured means of existence not only to those who had supported the fatigues of the war, but also to all the other citizens, without causing expenditure 0) Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 1. ( 2 ) Epistles to Atticus, I. 18. In allusion to a former law, we read as fol- lows: "The senators who have discussed the present law shall be held, within ten days following the plebiscitum, to swear to maintain it before the questor, in the treasury, in open day, and taking for witnesses Jupiter and the gods Penates." (Table of Bantia, Klenze, Fhilologisclie Abhandlungen, IV. 16-24.) ( 3 ) Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 1. 426 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^ESAK. to the State or loss to the nobles ; on the contrary, it gave to several honours and power." Thus, while some historians accuse Caesar of seek- ing in the populace of Rome the point of support for his ambitious designs, he, on the contrary, obtains a measure, the effect of which is to transport the tur- bulent part of the inhabitants of the capital into the country. Caesar, then, read his project to the Senate ; after which, calling the senators by their names, one after the other, he asked the opinion of each, declaring his readiness to modify the law, or withdraw it altogeth- er, if it were not agreeable to them. But, according to Dio Cassius, " It was unassailable, and, if any dis- approved of it, none dared to oppose it ; what afflict- ed its opponents most was, that it was drawn up in such a manner as to leave no room for a com- plaint." (') So the opposition was limited to adjourn- ing from time to time, under frivolous pretexts. Cato, without making a direct opposition, alleged the ne- cessity of changing nothing in the constitution of the Republic, and declared himself the adversary of all kind of innovation ; but, when the moment came for voting, he had recourse again to his old tactics, and rendered all deliberation impossible by speaking the entire day, by which he had already succeeded in de- priving Caesar of the triumph. ( 2 ) The latter lost pa- tience, and sent the obstinate orator to prison ; Cato was followed by a great number of senators, and M. (') Dio Cnssius, XXXVIII. 2. ( 5 ) Ateius Capito, Treatise on the Duties of the Senator, quoted by Aulus Gcl- lius, IV. 10. Valerius Maximus, II. 10, 7.) CONSULSHIP OF OESAR AND BIBULUS. 427 Petreius, one of them, replied to the consul, who re- proached him for withdrawing before the meeting was closed : " I would rather be in prison with Cato than here with thee." Regretting, however, this first movement of anger, and struck by the attitude of the assembly, Caesar immediately restored Cato to liberty; then he dismissed the Senate, addressing them in the following words : " I had made you supreme judges and arbiters of this law, in order that, if any one of its provisions displeased you, it should not be re- ferred to the people ; but, since you have refused the previous deliberation, the people alone shall decide it." His attempt at conciliation having failed with the Senate, he renewed it towards his colleague, and, in the astembly of the tribes, adjured Bibulus to sup- port his proposal. On their side, the people joined their ensreaties with those of Caesar; but Bibulus, inflexible, merely said : " You will not prevail with me, though you were all of one voice ; and, as long as I shall be consul, I will suffer no innovation." (*) Then Caesar, judging other influences necessary, ap- pealed to Pompey and Crassus. Pompey seized hap- pily this opportunity for speaking to the people : he said that he not only approved the agrarian law, but that the senators themselves had formerly admitted the principle, in decreeing, on his return from Spain, a distribution of lands to his soldiers and to those of Metellus ; if this measure had been deferred, it was on account of the penury of the treasury, which, thanks to him, had now ceased. Then, replying to Caesar, who asked him if he would support the law () Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 4. 428 HISTORY OF JULIUS ill case it were opposed by violence, " If any one dared to draw his sword," he cried, " I would take even my buckler ;" meaning by that, that he would come into the public place armed as for the combat. This bold declaration of Pompey, supported by Crassus and Caepio, (*) silenced all opposition except that of Bibu- lus, who, with three tribunes his partisans, called an assembly of the Senate in his own house, where it was resolved that at all risk the law should be open- ly rejected. ( 2 ) The day of : meeting of the comitia having been fixed, the populace occupied the Forum during the night. Bibulus hurried with his friends to the tem- ple of Castor, where his colleague was addressing the multitude ; he tried in vain to obtain a hearing, was thrown down from the top of the steps, and obliged to fly, after seeing his fasces broken to pieces and two tribunes wounded. Cato, in his turn, tried to mount the rostra ; expelled by force, he returned, but, instead of treating of the question, seeing that nobody listen- ed to him, he attacked Caesar with bitterness, until he was dragged a second time from the tribune. Calm being restored, the law was adopted. Next day Bib- ulus tried to propose to the S'enate its abrogation; but nobody supported him, such was the effect of this burst of popular enthusiasm ; ( 3 ) from this mo- ment he took the part of shutting himself up at home during the residue of Caesar's consulship. When the latter presented a new law on the days of the comi- ( 1 ) Suetonius, Ctesar, 21. ( 2 ) Appian, Civil Wars, II. 11. ( 3 ) Dio Cassias, XXXVIII. 6. CONSULSHIP OF C^SAE AND BIBULUS. 429 tia, lie contented himself with protesting, and with sending by his lictors to say that he was observing the sky, and that consequently all deliberation was illegal. ( x ) This was to proclaim loudly the political aim of this formality. Csesar was far from yielding to this religious scru- ple, which, indeed, had lost its authority. At this very time Lucullus wrote a bold poem against the popular credulity, and for some time the observation of the auspices had been regarded as a puerile super- stition ; two centuries and a half before, a great cap- tain had given a remarkable proof of this. Hannibal, then a refugee at the court of King Prusias, engaged the latter to accept his plans of campaign against the Romans; the king refused, because the auspices had not been favourable. "What !" cried Hannibal, "have you more confidence in a miserable calf's liver than in the experience of an old general like me 3" ( 2 ) Be this as it may, the obligation not to- hold the coniitia while the magistrate was observing the sky was a law ; and to excuse himself for not having ob- 7 Q served it, as well as to prevent his acts from being declared null, Caesar, before quitting his office, brought (') The consuls, praetors, and generally all those who presided at an assem- bly of the people, or even who attended in quality of magistrates, had a right of veto, founded on popular superstition. This right was exercised by declar- ing that a celestial phenomenon had been observed by them, and that it was no longer permitted to deliberate. Jupiter darting thunder or rain, all treating on affairs with the people must be stopped; such was the text of the law, religious or political, published in 597. It was not necessary that it should thunder or rain, in fact ; the affirmation of a magistrate qualified to observe the sky being enough. (Cicero, Oration for Sextius, 15. Oration on the Consular Provinces, 19.) (Asconius, In Piso, p. 9, ed. Orelli.) (Orelli, Indices to his edition of Cicero, VIII. 126.) (Index Legum, articles Laws &lia and Fusia.) ( : ) Valerius Maximus, III. vii. 6. 430 HISTORY OF JULIUS C.ESAR. the question before the Senate, and thus obtained a legal ratification of his conduct. The law being adopted by the people, each senator was called to take his oath to observe it. Several members, and, among others, Q. Metellus Celer, M. Cato, and M. Favonius, ( ] ) had declared that they would never submit to it ; but when the day of tak- ing the oath arrived, their protests vanished before the fear of the punishment decreed against those who abstained, and, except Laterensis, everybody, even Cato, took the oath. ( 2 ) Irritated at the obstacles which he had encounter- ed, and sure of the approval of the people, Caesar in- cluded, by a new law, in the distribution of the public domain, the lands of Campania and of Stella, omitted before out of deference to the Senate. ( 3 ) C 1 ) Plutfirch, Cato, 37. ( 2 ) Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 7. "The Campanian law contains a provision which compels the candidates to swear, in the assembly of the people, that they will never propose anything contrary to the Italian legislation upon property. All have sworn, except Laterensis, who preferred desisting from the candida- ture for the tribuneship to taking the oath, and much gratitude has been shown to him for it." (Cicero, Epistles to Atticus, IL 18.) ( 3 ) This appears from the words of Dio Cassius (XXXVIII. 1). Several scholars are unwilling to admit the existence of two agrarian laws ; yet Cic- ero, in his letter to Atlicus (II. 7), written in April, announces that the twenty commissioners are named. In this first law (Familiar Letters, XIII. 4), he mentions the ayer of Volaterra, which was certainly not in Campania. In an- other letter of the beginning of May (Letters to Atticus, II. 16), he speaks of Campania for the first time, and says that Pompey had approved the first agra- rian law. Finally, in that written in the month of June (Letters to Atticus, II. 18), he speaks of the oath taken to the agrarian laws. Suetonius (C(?sar, 20) and Appian ( Civil Wars, II. 10) mention the Julian agrarian laws in the plu- ral. Titus Livius (Epitome of Book CIII.) speaks of the leges agrarice, of Caj- sar ; and Plutarch (Cato, 38) says positively : " Elated with this victory, Caesar proposed a new law, to share among the poor and indigent citizens nearly all the lands of Campania;" and previously, in chapter 3G, the same author had said of Cscsar, that he proposed laws for the distribution of the lands to the CONSULSHIP OF C^SAB AND BIBULUS. 431 In carrying the law into effect, Pompey's veterans received lands at Casilinum, in Campania ; ( J ) at Min- turnae, Lanuvium, Volturnum, and Aundena, in Sam- mum ; and at Boviamiin ; Clibae, and Veii, in Etru- ria ; ( 2 ) twenty thousand fathers of families having more than three children were established in Campa- nia, so that about a hundred thousand persons became husbandmen, and re-peopled with free men a great portion of the territory, while Rome was relieved from a populace which was inconvenient and debased. Capua became a Roman colony, which was a restora- tion of the democratic work of Marius, destroyed by Sylla. ( 3 ) It appears that the ager of Leontinum, in Sicily, was also comprised in the agrarian law. ( 4 ) The nomination of the twenty commissioners, chosen among the most commendable of the consulars, was next proceeded with. ( 5 ) Of the number were C. Cosconius and Atius Balbus, the husband of Caesar's sister. Clodius could not obtain admission among them, ( 6 ) and Cicero, after the death of Cosconius, re- poor citizens. Thus there were positively two laws published at an interval of some months ; and if the object of the second was the distribution of the ager Campanus, the first had without doubt a more general character. Dio Cassius, after having related the proposal of the first agrarian law, in which Campania was excepted, says similarly : "Besides, the territory of Campania was given to those who had three children or more" (XXXVIII. 7). (') Cicero, Second Philippic, 15. (") Liber Cotoniarum, edit. Lachmann, pp. 220, 235, 239, 259, 2GO. Several of these colonies probably dated no farther back than the dictatorship of Csesar. ( 3 ) Suetonius, Ceesar, 20. Velleius Paterculus, II. 44. Appian, Civil Wars, II. 10. " Capua mura ducta colonia Julia Felix, jussu imperatoris Caesaris a xx. viris deducta." (Liber Coloniarum, I. p. 231, edit. Lachmann.) (*) Cicero, Second Philijipic, 39. ( 5 ) Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 1. Cicero, Epistles to Atticus, II. 19. ( 6 ) Cicero, Epistles to Atticus, II. 7. 432 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. fused to take his place. (*) The latter, in his letters to Atticus, blames especially the distribution of the territory of Capua, as depriving the Republic of an important revenue ; and inquires what will remain to the State, unless it be the twentieth on the enfran- chisement of slaves, since the rights of toll had already been abandoned through the whole of Italy ; but it was objected with reason that, on the other hand, the State was relieved from the enormous charges im- posed by the necessity of distributing wheat to all the poor of Rome. Nevertheless, the allotment of the ager Campanus and of the ager of Stella niejb with many delays ; it was not yet terminated in 703, since at that epoch Pompey was advised to hasten the distribution of the last-mentioned lands, in order that Caesar, on his re- turn from Gaul, might not have the merit of it. ( 2 ) III. We have seen how, in previous years, Cato various was instrumental in refusing the request of those who farmed the taxes of Asia to have the terms of their leases lowered. By this rig- orous measure, the Senate had estranged from itself the equestrian order, whose complaints had been far from unreasonable. In fact, the price paid for the farming of the revenues of Asia had been heavy dur- ing the war against Mithridates, as may be learnt from the speech of Cicero against the Manilian Law -, and the remission of a portion of the money due to the State was a measure not without some show of (') Cicero, Oration on the Consular Provinces, 17. (") Cicero, Familiar Letters, VIII. 10. CONSULSHIP OF CAESAR AND BIBULUS. 433 justice to excuse it. Caesar, when he became consul, influenced by a sense of justice no less than by policy, lost no time in proposing a law to remit to the farm- ers of the revenue one-third of the sums for which they were responsible. ( J ) He first addressed himself to the Senate ; but that body having refused to de- liberate on the question, he found himself compelled to submit it to the people, ( 2 ) who adopted his opin- ion. This liberality, so far beyond what they had hoped for, filled the farmers of the revenue with joy, and rendered them devoted to the man who showed himself so generous : he advised them, however, pub- licly, to be more careful in future, and not overbid in an inconsiderate manner at the time of the sale of the taxes. ( 3 ) The agrarian law, and the law concerning the rents, having satisfied the interests of the proletaries, the veterans, and the knights, it became important to set- tle the just demands of Pompey. Therefore Caesar obtained from the people their approbation of all the acts of the conqueror of Mithridates. ( 4 ) Lucullus had been till then one of the most earnest adversaries of this measure. He could not forget the glory of which Pompey had frustrated him ; but his dread of a prosecution for peculation was so great, that he fell at Caesar's feet, and forswore all opposition. ( 5 ) The activity of the consul did not confine itself to (*) Appian, Civil Wars, II. 13. Scholiast of Bobbio on Cicero. Cicero, Ora- tion for Plancus, p. 261, edit. Orelli. ( a ) Cicero, Oration for Plancus, 14. ( 3 ) Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 1. Suetonius, Ccesar, 20. (*) Suetonius, Ctesor, 20. Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 7. Appian, II. 18. (*) Suetonius, Ccesar, 20. 19 EE 434 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAR. internal reforms ; it extended to questions which were raised abroad. The condition of Egypt was precari- ous : King Ptolemy Auletes, natural son of Ptolemy Lathyrus, was afraid lest, in virtue of a forged will of Ptolemy Alexander, or Alexas, to whose fall he had contributed, his kingdom might be incorporated with the Roman Empire. (') Auletes, perceiving his au- thority shaken in Alexandria, had sought the support of Pompey during the war in Judaea, and had sent him presents, and a large sum of money, to engage him to maintain his cause before the Senate. ( 2 ) Pom- pey had offered himself as his advocate ; and Caesar, whether from policy, or from a wish to please his son- in-law, caused Ptolemy Auletes to be declared a friend and ally of Rome. ( 3 ) At his demand, the same fa- vour was granted to Ariovistus, king of the Germans, who, after having made war upon the ^Edui, had with- drawn from their country at the invitation of the Sen- ate, and had expressed a desire to become an ally of Rome. It was entirely the interest of the Republic to conciliate the Germans, and send them to the other bank of the Rhine, whatever might be the views of (') Cicero, Second Oration on the Agrarian Law, 16. Scholiast of Bobbio on Cicero's Oration In Rege Alexandrino, p. 350, edit. Orelli. This Ptolemy Alex- as, or Alexander, appears to have been a natural son of Alexander I., youn- ger brother of Ptolemy Lathyrus, who is also called Ptolemy Soter II. ; in this case he would be, though illegitimate, cousin of Ptolemy Auletes. He had suc- ceeded Alexander II., legitimate son of Alexander I., who married his step- mother, Berenice, only legitimate daughter of Ptolemy Soter II. ( a ) Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 16. The King of Egypt gave nearly 6,000 talents (35 millions of francs) to Ctesar and Pompey. (Suetonius, Casar, 14.) ( 3 ) Suetonius, Ccesar, 54. Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 12. Caesar's expressions (War of Alexandria, 33, and Civil Wars, III. 107) show the friendship of Ptol- emy Auletes for the Romans. CONSULSHIP OF CJSSAR AND BIBULUS. 435 the consul regarding his future command in Gaul. ( J ) Next, he conferred some privileges on certain muni- cipia and satisfied many ambitions; "for," says Sue- tonius," he granted everything that was asked of him : no man dared oppose him, and, if any one attempted, he knew how to intimidate him." ( 2 ) Among the cares of the consul .was the nomination of tribunes devoted to him, since it was they generally who proposed the laws for the people to ratify. Clodius, on account of his popularity, was one of the candidates who could be most useful to him ; but his rank of patrician obliged him to pass by adoption into a plebeian family be&re he could be elected, and that he could only do in virtue of a law. Caesar hesitated in bringing it forward; for if, on the one hand, he sought to conciliate Clodius himself, on the other, he knew his designs of vengeance against Cice- ro, and was unwilling to put into his hands an au- thority which he might abuse. But when, towards month of March, at the trial of C. Antonius, charged with disgraceful conduct in Macedonia, Cice- ro, in defending his former colleague, indulged in a violent attack upon those in power, on that same day Clodius was received into the ranks of the plebe- ians, ( 3 ) and soon afterwards became, together with (') Caesar, War in Gaul, 1. 35 Plutarch, Ccesar, 35. Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 3i. ( 2 ) Suetonius, Ccesar, 20. ( 3 ) Plutarch, Calo, 38. "It was about the sixth hour, when, in the course of my speech in court for C. Antonius, my colleague, I deplored certain abuses which prevailed in the State, and which seemed to me to be closely allied to the case of my unfortunate client. Some ill-disposed persons reported my words to certain men of high position iu different terms to those I had used ; and on the same day, at the ninth hour, the adoption of Clodius was carried." Cicero, Oration for his House, 16.) 436 HISTOKY OF JULIUS OESAR. Vatinius, tribune - elect. (') There was a third tri- bune, whose name is unknown, but who was equally won over to the interests of the consul. ( 2 ) Thus Caesar, as even Cicero admits, was alone more powerful already than the Eepublic. ( 3 ) Of some he was the hope ; of others, the terror ; of all, master ir- revocably. The inactivity of Bibulus had only served to increase his power. (*) Thus it was said in Rome, as a jest, that men knew of no other consulship than that of Julius and Caius Caesar, making two persons out of a single name ; and the following verses were handed about : " Non Bibulo quidquam miper sed Caesare factum cst : Nam Bibulo fieri consule nil memini."( 8 ) And as popular favour, when it declares itself in fa- vour of a man in a conspicuous position, sees some- thing marvellous in everything that concerns his per- son, the populace drew a favourable augury from the existence of an extraordinary horse born in his sta- bles. Its hoofs were forked, and shaped like fingers. Caesar was the only man who could tame this strange animal, the docility of which, it was said, foreboded to him the empire of the world. ( 6 ) 0) Appian, Civil Wars, II. 14. Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 12. Plutarch, Pom- pey,5Q. Cicero, 39. ( 2 ) Cicero, Oration for Sestius, he. cit. ( 3 ) Cicero, writing to Atticus about Caesar's first consulship, says: "Weak as he was then, Caesar was stronger than the entire State." (Letters to Atticus, VII. 9.) ( 4 ) "Bibulus thought to render Caesar an object of suspicion. He made him more powerful than before." (Velleius Paterculus, II. 44.) ( 5 ) Suetonius, Ccesar, 20. ( 6 ) Csesar rode an extraordinary horse, whose feet were shaped almost like those of man, the hoof being divided in such a way as to present the appearance of fingers. He had reared this horse, which had been foaled in his house, with CONSULSHIP OF (LESAR AND BIBULUS. 437 During his first consulship, Caesar caused a number of laws to be passed, the greater part of which have not descended to us. Some valuable fragments, how- ever, of the most important ones have been preserved, and among others, the modifications in the sacerdotal privileges. The tribune Labienus, as we have seen, in order to secure Caesar's election to the oflice of pontiff, had granted the right of election to seventeen tribes selected by lot. Although this law seemed to authorise absentees to become candidates for the priesthood, the people and the priests disputed the right of those who did not solicit the dignity in per- son. Endless quarrels and disturbances were the re- sult. To put an end to these, Caesar, while confirm- ing the law of Labienus, announced that not only those candidates who appeared in person, but those at a distance also, who had any title whatever to that honour, might offer themselves as candidates. (*) He turned his attention next to the provinces, whose condition had always excited his sympathy. The law intended to reform the vices of the adminis- tration (De provinciis ordinandis) is of uncertain date ; it bears the same title as that of Sylla, and re- sembles it considerably. Its provisions guaranteed great care, for the soothsayers had predicted the empire of the world to its mas- ter. Caesar was the first who tamed it : before that time the animal had al- lowed no one to mount it. Finally, he erected a statue to its honour in front of the Temple of Venus Genetrix. (Suetonius, Osar, 61.) (*) "I am quite of opinion that the right of absent candidates to solicit the offices of the priesthood may be examined by the comitia, for there is a prece- dent for that. C. Marius, whilst in Cappadocia, was elected augur by the law Domitia, and no subsequent law has forbidden the course ; for the Julian Law, the last on the subject of the priesthood, states : ' He who is a candidate, or he whose right to become one has been examined.'" (Cicero, Letters to Brutus, 1.5.) 438 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. the inhabitants against the violence, the arbitrary conduct, and the corruption of the proconsuls and propraetors, and fixed the allotments to which these were entitled. (*) It released the free states, libercs civitates, from de- pendence upon governors, and authorised them to govern themselves by their own laws and their own magistrates. ( 2 ) Cicero himself considered this meas- ure as the guarantee of the liberty of the prov- inces ; ( 3 ) for, in his speech against Piso, he reproach- es him with having violated it by including free na- tions in his government of Macedonia. ( 4 ) Lastly, a separate proviso regulated the responsibility and ex- penses of the administration, by requiring that on go- ing out of office the governors should deliver, at the end of thirty days, an account explaining their ad- ministration and their expenses, of which three cop- ies were to be deposited, one in the treasury (cerari- um) at Rome, and the others in the two principal towns of the province. ( 5 ) The propraetors were to ( l ) Cicero, Oration against Piso, 37. ( a ) Cicero, Oration on the Consular Provinces, 4. Oration against Piso, 21. ( 3 ) Cicero, Oration against Piso, 16; Letters to Atticus,V. 10, 16, 21. First Philippic, 8. ( 4 ) "You have obtained," says he, addressing Piso, "a consular province with no other limits than those of your cupidity, in contravention of the law of your son-in-law. In fact, by a law of Ctesar's, as just as it is salutary, free na- tions used to enjoy a full and entire liberty." (Cicero, Oration against Piso, 16.) (*) Cicero, Oration against Piso, 25 ; Familiar Letters, II. 17 ; Letters to At- ticus, VI. 7. " I will add, that if the ancient right and antique usage were still in force, I should not have had to send in my accounts till after I had dis- coursed about them, and had them audited with good humour, and the formal- ities that our intimacy justifies. What I would have done in Rome according to the old fashion, I ought, according to the Julian law, to have done in my province : send in my accounts on the spot, and only deposit in the treasury an exact copy of them. I was obliged to follow the provisions of the law. The CONSULSHIP OF CAESAR AND BIBULtJS. 439 remain one year, and the proconsuls two, at the head of their governments. (*) The generals were in the habit of burdening the people they governed with exorbitant exactions. They extorted from them crowns of gold (aurum coronariurti), of considerable value, under pretence of the triumph, and obliged the countries through which they passed to bear the expenses of themselves and their attendants. Caesar remedied these abuses, by forbidding the proconsuls to demand the crown before the triumph had been decreed, ( 2 ) and by sub- jecting to the most rigorous restrictions the contri- butions in kind which were to be furnished. ( 3 ) We may judge how necessary these regulations were from the fact that Cicero, whose government was justly considered an honest one, admits that he drew large sums from his province of Cilicia eight years after the passing of the law Julia. ( 4 ) accounts, duly audited and compared, were to be deposited in two towns, and I chose, in the terms of the law, the two most important Laodicea and Apa- mea I come to the point of the customary presents. You must know that I had only included in my list the military tribunes, the prefects, and the officers of my house (contubernales). I even made a blunder. I thought I was allowed any latitude in point of time. Subsequently I learnt that the request ought to be sent in during the thirty days allowed for the settling the accounts. Happily, all is safe as far as the centurions are concerned, and the officers of the household of the military tribunes for the law is silent in regard to the latter. (Cicero, Familiar Letters, V. 20.) ( l ) Dio Cassius, XLIII. 25. ( a ) "I say nothing about the golden crown that has been so long a torture to you, in your uncertainty as to whether you ought to demand it or not. In fact, the law of your son-in-law forbad them to give it or you to receive it, un- less your triumph had been granted you." (Cicero, Oration against Piso, 37.) ( 3 ) Cicero, Oration against Pisof37; Letters to Atticus,\. 10, 16. (*) "Take notice, I beg you, that I paid into the hands of the farmers of the revenues at Ephesus twenty-two millions of sestertii, a sum to which I have a perfect right, and that Pompey laid hands on the whole. I have made up my 440 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. The same law forbad all governors to leave their provinces, or to send their troops out of them to in- terfere in the affairs of any neighbouring State, with- out permission of the Senate and the people, (*) or to extort any money from the inhabitants of the prov- inces. ( 2 ) The law by similar provisions diminished the abuse of free legations (legationes liber ce). This was the name given to the missions of senators, who, travel- ling into the provinces on their own affairs, obtained by an abuse the title of envoy of the Roman people, to which they had no right, in order to be defrayed the expenses and costs of travelling. These missions, which were for an indefinite time, were the subject of incessant ( 3 ) complaints. Cicero had limited them to a year: Caesar prescribed a still narrower limit, but its exact length is unknown. (*) As a supplement to the preceding measures he brought in a law (Depecuniis repetundis), the provi- sions of which have often been confounded with those of the law De provinciis ordinandis. Cicero boasts of its perfection ( 5 ) and justice. It contained a great mind on the subject whether wisely or unwisely matters not." (Cicero, Ora- tion against Piso, xxxvii. 16.) ( l ) Cicero, Oration against Piso, 21. ( 3 ) Cicero, Oration on theConsular Provinces, 2, 3, 4. ( 3 ) "Is there any position more disgraceful than that of a senator, who goes on a mission without the slightest authorisation on the part of the State ? It was this kind of mission that I should have abolished during my consulship, even with the consent of the Senate, notwithstanding the apparent advantages it held out, had it not been for the senseless opposition of a tribune. At any rate I caused its duration to be shortened : formerly it had no limit ; now I have reduced it to a year." (Cicero, On Laws, III. 8.) (*) "Moreover, I think that the Julian law has defined the duration of free embassies: nor will it be easy to extend it." (Cicero, Letters to Alticus, XV. 11. Orelli, Index Legum, p. 192.) (*) Cicero, Oration for Sestius, 64. "Liberty torn from nations and individ- CONSULSHIP OF CAESAR AND BIBULUS. number of sections. In a letter from Ccelius to Cic- ero, the 101st chapter of the law is referred to. Its object was to meet all cases of peculation, out of Italy as well as in Rome. Persons who had been wronged coulfl demand restitution before a legal tribunal of the sums unjustly collected. (*) Though the princi- pal provisions of it were borrowed from the law of Sylla on the same subject, the penalty was more se- vere and the proceedings more expeditious. For in- stance, as the rich contrived, by going into voluntary exile before the verdict, to elude the punishment, it was provided that in that case their goods should be confiscated, in part or wholly, according to the nature of the crime. ( 2 ) If the fortune of the defendant was not sufficient for the repayment of the money claimed, all those who had profited by the embezzlement were sought out and jointly condemned. ( 3 ) Finally, cor- ruption was attacked in all its forms, ( 4 ) and the law uals on whom it had been conferred, and whose right had been, by virtue of the Julian law, so precisely ensured against all hostile attacks." (Oration against Piso, xxxvii. 16.) (') Cicero, Familiar Letters, VIII. 8. Several of its chapters have been pre- served in the Digest, XLVIII. tit. XI. It is generally supposed that the frag- ments inscribed on a tablet of brass in the Museum of Florence belong to the same law. They have been published by Maffei, Museum Veronense, p. 365, No. 4, and commented on by the celebrated Marini, in his work on the Monu- ments of the Fratres Arvales, I. pp. 39, 40, note 44. ( 3 ) Suetonius, Caesar, 42. ( 3 ) Cicero, Oration for Ralririmus Postumus, 4, 5. (*) Fragments of the Julian law, De Repetundis, preserved in the Digest, XLVIII. tit. XL The law is directed against those who, holding a magistracy, an embassy, or any other office, or forming part of the attendants of these functionaries, re- ceive money. They may receive money to any amount from their cousins, their still nearer relatives, or their wives. The law includes those who have received money : For speaking in the Sen- 19* 442 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. went so far as to watch over the honesty of business transactions. One article deserves special remark, that which forbad a public work to be accepted as completed if it were not absolutely finished. Caesar had doubtless in mind the process which he had un- successfully instituted against Catulus for his failure to complete the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. We may for the most part consider as Caesar's laws those which were passed at his instigation, whether by the tribune P. Vatinius, or the praetor Q. Fufius Calenus. (') One of the laws of the former authorised the ac- cuser in a suit, as well as the accused, to challenge for once all the judges : down to this time they had only ate or any public assembly ; for doing their duty or absenting themselves from it ; for refusing to obey a public order or for exceeding it ; for pronouncing judgment in a criminal or a civil case, or for not pronouncing it ; for condemn- ing or acquitting ; for awarding or withdrawing the subject of a suit ; for ad- judging or taking an object in litigation ; for appointing a judge or arbitrator, changing him, ordering him to judge, or for not appointing him or changing him, and not ordering him to judge ; for causing a man to be imprisoned, put in irons, or set at liberty ; for accusing or not accusing ; for producing or sup- pressing a witness ; for recognising as complete an unfinished public work ; for accepting wheat for the use of the State without testing its good quality ; for taking upon himself the maintenance of the public buildings without a certifi- cate of their good condition ; for enlisting a soldier or discharging him. All that has been given to the proconsul or praetor contrary to the provisions of the present law, cannot become his by right of possession. Sales and leases are declared null and void which have been made, for a high or a low price, with a view to right of possession by a third. The magistrates are to abstain from all extortion, and receive as salary but 100 pieces of gold each year. The action will lie equally against the heirs of the accused, but only during the year succeeding his death. No one who has been condemned under this law can be either judge, accuser, or witness. The penalties are exile, banishment to an island, or death, according to the gravity of the offence. O Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 8. CONSULSHIP OF C^SAB AND BIBULUS. 443 been permitted to challenge a certain number. ( J ) Its object was to give to all the same guarantee which Sylla had reserved exclusively to the senators, since for the knights and plebeians he limited the challenge to three. ( 2 ) Vatinius had also conferred on five thousand colonists, established at Como (Novum Co- mum), the rights of a Roman city. This measure ( 3 ) flattered the pride of Pompey, whose father, Pompeius Strabo, had rebuilt the town of Comum ; and it offer- ed to other colonists the hope of obtaining the quali- fication of Roman citizens, which Caesar subsequently granted to them. ( 4 ) Another devoted partisan of the consul, the praetor Q. Fufius Calenus, ( 5 ) proposed a law which in judi- cial deliberations laid the responsibility upon each of the three orders of which the tribunal was composed: the senators, the knights, and the tribunes of the treas- ury. Instead of pronouncing a collective judgment, they were called upon to express their opinion sepa- rately. Dio Cassius explains the law in these terms : " Seeing that in a process all the votes were mixed together, and that each order took to itself the credit of the good decisions, and threw the bad ones to the account of the others, Calenus had a law made that ( l ) Df. alternis consiliis rejiciendis. (Cicero, Oration against Vatinius, 11. Scholiast of Bobbio, pp. 321, 323, edit. Orelli.) ( J ) " The citizens who, not being of your order, cannot, thanks to the Corne- lian laws, challenge more than three judges." (Cicero, Second Prosecution of Ferrer, 11.31.) ( 3 ) Suetonius, Caesar, 28. () Cicero, Familiar Letters, XIII. 35. "Pompeias Strabo, father of Pom- pey the Great, re-peopled Comum. Some time after, Scipio established 3,000 inhabitants there ; and, finally, Caesar sent 5,000 colonists, the most distin- guished of whom were 500 Greeks." (Strabo, cxix.) (') Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 18. Dio Cassius, XXVIII. 8. 444 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. the different orders should vote independently, in or- der to know thus, not the opinion of individuals, since the vote was secret, but that of each order." ( l ) All the laws of Caesar were styled " Julian laws ;" they received the sanction of the Senate, and were adopted without opposition, ( 2 ) and even Cato him- self did not oppose them ; but when he became prae- tor, and found himself obliged to put them into exe- cution, he was little-minded enough to object to call them by their name. ( 3 ) We may be convinced by the above facts, that, dur- ing his first consulship, Caesar was animated by a sin- gle motive, the public interest. His ruling thought was to remedy the evils which afflicted the country. His acts, which several historians have impeached as subversive and inspired by boundless ambition, we find, on an attentive examination, to be the result of a wise policy, and the carrying out of a well-known plan, proclaimed formerly by the Gracchi, and recent- ly by Pompey himself. Like the Gracchi, Caesar de- sired a distribution of the public domain, the reform of justice, the relief of the provinces, and the extension of the rights of city ; like them, he had protected the knightly order, so that he might oppose it to the for- midable resistance of the Senate ; but he, more for- tunate, accomplished that which the Gracchi had been (') Dio Cassias, XXVIII. 8. Orelli, Index Legvm, 178. (*) Cicero, in his speech against Vatinius, chap. 6, while reproaching him for having disregarded the auspices, exclaims, "I ask jou first, Did you refer the matter to the Senate, as Csesar did ?" "It is true that Caesar's acts were, for the benefit of peace, confirmed by the Senate." (Cicero, Second Philippic, 39.) (?) Dio CassiuB, XXXVIII. 7. CONSULSHIP OF CAESAR AND BIBULUS. 445 unable to realise. Plutarch, in the life of Crassus, ( l ) pronounces a eulogium on the wisdom of his govern- ment, although an intemperate judgment had led that writer, elsewhere, to compare his conduct to that of a factious tribune. ( 2 ) Following the taste of the age, and especially as a means of popularity, Caesar gave splendid games, shows, and gladiatorial combats, borrowing from Pompey and Atticus considerable sums to meet his love of display, his profusion, and his largesses. ( 3 ) Suetonius, ever ready to record, without distinction, the reports, true and false, current at the time, re- lates that Caesar had taken from the treasury three thousand pounds of gold, for w^hich he substituted gilt metal ; but his high character is sufficient to re- fute this calumny. Cicero, who had not, at this time, any reason to spare him, makes no mention of it in his letters, where his ill-humour displays itself, nor in his speech against Vatinius, one of Caesar's devoted friends. On the other hand, Pliny ( 4 ) mentions a sim- ilar fact which happened during Pompey's consulate. IV. Caesar did not confine his ambition to dis- csar receives the charging the functions of a consul and Government of the -,.-,. ^ -i * . -, . Gauis. legislator: he desired to obtain a com- mand worthy of the elevation of his genius, to extend the frontiers of the Republic, and to preserve them (!) " Caesar conducted himself with discretion in his consulship." (Plutarch, Crassus, 17.) ( 3 ) " Caesar published laws that were worthy, I will not say of a consul, but of the most reckless of tribunes." (Plutarch, Casar, 14.) ( 3 ) Cicero, Letters to Atticus,\I. 1. Appian, Civil Wars, II. 13. (*) Pliny, Natural History, XXXIII. 5. Drnmann and Mommscn, like our- selves, refuse their belief to the assertion of Suetonius. 446 HISTORY OF JULIUS from the invasion of their most powerful enemies. It will be remembered that at the time of the election of the consuls, the Senate had conferred upon them the superintendence of the woods and public roads. He had, therefore, slender grounds to expect a return of friendly feeling on the part of that assembly, and, if the distribution of governments was vested in them, history offered examples of provinces given by vote of the people. Numidia was assigned to Marius on the proposal of the tribune L. Manlius ; and L. Lucul- lus, having received Cisalpine Gaul from the Senate, obtained Cilicia from the people. (*) It was thus that the command of Asia had been conferred upon Pompey. Strong in these precedents, Vatinius pro- posed to the people to confer upon Ca3sar, for five years, the command of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyria, with three legions. ( 2 ) Pompey supported this pro- posal with all his influence. The friends of Cras- sus, ( 3 ) Claudius ( 4 ) and L. Piso, gave their votes in favour of this law. At first, it appeared strange that the proposal of the tribune only included Cisalpine Gaul, without reference to the other side of the Alps, which alone offered chances of acquiring glory. But, on reflection, we discover how skilful and politic was this manner of putting the question. To solicit at the same time the government of both the Gauls might have seemed exorbitant, and likely to expose him to failure. To demand the government of Gaul proper was danger- ( l ) Plutarch, Lttcullus, 9. (*) Suetonius, Caesar, 22. Plutarch, Ccesar, 14. () Appian, Civil Wars, II. 14. () Plutarch, Cratstis, 17. CONSULSHIP OF OESAR AND BIBULUS. 447 ous, for if lie had obtained it without Cisalpine Gaul, which would have devolved upon another proconsul, Caesar would have found himself completely separated from Italy, inasmuch as it would have been impossi- ble for him to repair thither during the winter, and so preserve continuous relations with Rome. The proposal of Vatinius, on the contrary, having for its object only Cisalpine Gaul and Illyria, they could scarcely refuse a command limited to the ordinary bounds, and Caesar acquired thereby a solid basis for operations in the midst of devoted populations, where his legions could be easily recruited. As to the prov- ince beyond the Alps, it was probable that some for- tuitous circumstance, or new proposal, would place it under his orders. This happened sooner than he ex- pected, for the Senate, by a skilful, but at this time unusual, determination, added to his command a third province, Gallia Comata, or Transalpine, and a fourth legion. The Senate thus obtained for itself the credit of an initiative, which the people would have taken of itself had it not been anticipated. ( x ) Transported with joy at this news, Caesar, according to Suetonius, exclaimed in the full Senate, that now, having succeeded to the utmost of his desire in spite of his enemies, he would march over their heads. ( 2 ) This story is not probable. He was too prudent to provoke his enemies in their face at the moment he was going to a distance from Rome. " Always mas- ter of himself," says an old writer, " he never needless- ly ran against anybody." ( 3 ) ( l ) Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 8. Suetonius, Ccesar, 22. (*) Suetonius, Casar, 22. (') Dio Cassius, XL. 34. 448 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^ESAK. V. Whilst, contending with the most serious diffi- of the culties, Caesar endeavoured to establish the Republic on the securest foundations, the aristocratic party consoled itself for its successive defeats by a petty war of sarcasm and chicanery. At the theatre they applauded all the injurious al- lusions of Ponipey, and received Csesar with cold- ness. (*) Bibulus, the son-in-law of Cato, published libels containing the grossest attacks. He renewed the accusation of plotting against the Republic, and of the pretended shameful relations with Nicomedes. ( 2 ) People rushed to read and copy these insulting pla- cards. Cicero gladly sent them to Atticus. ( 3 ) The party, too, to which Bibulus belonged, extolled him to the skies, and made him a great man. ( 4 ) His op- (*) "At the gladiatorial exhibition, the giver of the show and all his attend- ants were received with hisses. At the games in honour of Apollo, the trage- dian Diphilus made a pointed allusion to our friend Pompey in the lines "Tis through our woes that thou art great,' and was called upon to repeat the words a thousand times. Further on, the whole assembly cheered him when he said, 1 A time shall come, when thou thyself shall weep That power of thine so deadly' for they are lines that one might have said were written on purpose by an ene- my of Pompey. The words * If nought, nor law, nor virtue, hold thee back, 1 were received with a tempest of acclamation. When Casar arrived, he met with a cold reception. Curio, on the other hand, who followed him, was sa- inted with a thousand cheers, as Pompey used to be in the prosperous times of the Republic. Caesar was annoyed, and sent off a. courier post haste to Pora- pey, who is, they say, at Capua." (Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 19.) (*) Suetonius, Ccesar, 9. ( 3 ) Cicero, Letters to Atticus, H. 19. (*) "Bibulus is being praised to the skies, I know not why; but he is being extolled as the one only man who, by temporising, has restored the State. Pompey, my idol Pompey, has been his own ruin, as I own with tears to-day ; he has no one left who takes his side from affection. I am afraid that they will find it necessary to resort to intimidation. For my own part, I forbear, CONSULSHIP OF CAESAR AND BIBULUS. 449 position, however, had only succeeded in postponing the consular comitia until the month of October. This prorogation was made in the hope of prevent- ing the election of consuls friendly to the triumvirs. Caesar, on this occasion, attacked him in a violent speech, and Vatinius proposed to arrest him. Pom- pey, on his part, moved by invectives to which he was unaccustomed, complained to the people of the animosity of which he was the object; but his speech does not appear to have been attended with much success. It is sad to see the accomplishment of great things often thwarted by the little passions of short-sighted men, who only know the world in the small circle to which their life is confined. By seconding Caesar, Bibulus might have obtained an honourable reputa- tion. He preferred being the hero of a coterie, and sought to obtain the interested applause of a few self- ish senators, rather than, with his colleague, to merit public gratitude. Cicero, on his part, mistook for a true expression of opinion the clamours of a desperate faction. He was, moreover, one of those who find that all fares well while they are themselves in pow- er, and that everything is endangered when they are out. In his letters to Atticus he speaks of the gener- al hatred to these new kings, predicts their approach- ing fall, and exclaims, ( J ) " What murmurs ! what ir- on the one hand, to combat their views on account of my ancient friendship with them, and, on the other, my antecedents prevent my approving of what they are about ; I preserve a middle course. The humour of the people is best seen in the theatres." (Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 19, 20, 21.) ( l ) "He keeps prudently in the background, but hopes at a safe distance to witness their shipwreck." (Cicero, Letters to Attiats, II. 7.) PF 450 HISTORY OF JULIUS dESAR. ritation ! what hatred against our friend Pompey ! His name of great is growing old like that of rich Crassus." (') He explains, with a perfect naivete, the consolation which his self-love finds in the abasement of him who was formerly the object of his admiration. " I was tormented with fear that the services which Pompey rendered to our country should hereafter appear great- er than mine. I have quite recovered from it. He is so low, so veiy low, that Curius himself appears to me a giant beside him." ( 2 ) And he adds, " Now there is nothing more popular than to hate the pop- ular men; they have no one on their side. They know it, and it is this which makes me fear a resort to violence. I cannot think without shuddering of the explosions which are inevitable." ( 3 ) The hatred which he bore to Clodius and Valerius misled his judgment. Whilst Caesar laboriously pursued the course of his destiny, the genius of Cicero, instead of understanding the future and hastening progress by his co-operation, resisted the general impulse, denied its evidence, and could not perceive the greatness of the cause through the faults of certain adherents to power. Caesar bore uneasily the attacks of Cicero ; but, like all who are guided by great political views, superior to resentment, he conciliated everything which might exercise an ascendency over people's minds ; and the eloquence of Cicero was a power. Dio Cassius thus (*) Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 13. ( a ) Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 1 7. (') Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 20, 21. CONSULSHIP OF C^SAR AND BIBULUS. 451 explains the conduct of Caesar : " He did not wound Cicero either by his words or his acts. He said that often many men designedly throw vain sarcasm against those who are above them in order to drive them to dispute, in the hope of appearing to have some resemblance to them, and be put in the same rank if they succeed in being abused in return. Cae- sar therefore judged that he ought not to enter the lists with anybody. Such was his rule of conduct to- wards those who insulted him, and, as he saw very well that Cicero sought less to offend him than to pro- voke him to make some injurious reply, from the de- sire which he had to be looked upon as his equal, he took no notice of him, made no account of what he said, and even allowed Cicero to insult him as he liked, and to praise himself beyond measure. How- ever, he was far from despising him, but, naturally gentle, his anger was not easily aroused. He had much to punish, as must be the case with one mixed up with great affairs, but he never yielded to pas- sion." (') i An incident occurred which showed all the animos- ity of a certain party. L. Vettius, an old spy of Cic- ero's in the Catiline conspiracy, punished for having falsely accused Caesar, was arrested on suspicion of wishing to attempt his life, as well as that of Pom- pey. A poniard was found upon him ; and, being interrogated before the Senate, he denounced, as the instigators of his crime, the young Curio, Caepio, Bru- tus, Lentulus, Cato, Lucullus, Piso, son-in-law of Cic- ero, Cicero himself, M.Laterensis, and others. He also Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 11. 452 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^ESAK. named Bibulus, which removed all air of probability from his accusations, Bibulus having already warned Pompey to be on his guard. (*) Historians, such as Dio Cassius, Appian, and Plutarch, treat this plot se- riously ; the first maintains expressly that Cicero and Lucullus had armed the hand of the assassin. Sueto- nius, on the contrary, reproaches Csesar. with having suborned Vettius in order to throw the blame upon his adversaries. In face of these contradictory informations, it is best, as in the case of an ordinary lawsuit, to estimate the worth of the charge according to the previous char- acter of the accused. Now, Cicero, notwithstanding his instability, was too honest to have a hand in a plot for assassination, and Caesar had too elevated a character and too great a consciousness of his power to lower himself so far as to seek, in a miserable in- trigue, the means of augmenting his influence. A senatus-consultum caused Vettius to be thrown into prison ; but Csesar, interested in, and resolved on, the discoveiy of the truth, referred the matter to the peo- ple, and forced Vettius to mount the tribune of the orators. He, with a suspicious versatility, denounced those whom he had before acquitted, and cleared those whom he had denounced, and among others, Brutus. With regard to the latter, it was pretended that this change was due to Caesar's connection with his moth- er. Vettius was remanded to prison, and found dead next day. Cicero accused Vatinius of killing him ; ( 2 ) but, according to others, the true authors of his death 0) Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 24. (*) Cicero, Oration against Vatinius, II. Dio Cassias. XXXVIII. 9. CONSULSHIP OF C^SAB AND BIBULUS. 453 were those who had urged him into this disgraceful intrigue, and were in fear of his revelations. ( J ) The comparison of these various accounts leads us to conclude that this obscure agent of dark intrigues had made himself the instigator of a plot, in order to have the merit of revealing it, and to attract the fa- vour of Csesar by pointing to his political adversaries as accomplices. Nevertheless, the event turned to the profit of Caesar, and the people permitted him to take measures for his personal safety. ( 2 ) It was doubtless at this period that the ancient custom was re-estab- lished of allowing a consul, during the month when he had not the fasces, the right of being preceded by a beadle (accensus) and followed by lictors. ( 3 ) Without changing the fundamental laws of the Re- public, Caesar had obtained a great result : he had re- placed anarchy by an energetic power, ruling at the same time the Senate and the comitia ; by the mutual understanding between the three most important men, he had substituted for personal rivalries a moral au- thority which enabled him to establish laws condu- cive to the prosperity of the empire. But it was es- sential that his departure should not entail the fall of the edifice so laboriously raised. He was not igno- rant of the number and power of his enemies ; he knew -that if he abandoned to them the forum and the curia, not only would they reverse his enactments, but they would even deprive him of his command. If there was any doubt of the degree of hatred of (') Scholiast of Bobbio, On Cicero's Oration against Vatiniiis, p. 330, edit. Orelli. Appian, Civil Wars, II. 2 and 12. ( s ) Appian, Civil Wars, II. 12. ( 3 ) Suetonius, Coesar, 20. 454 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^SAR. which he was the object, it would be sufficient to be reminded, that a year afterwards Ariovistus confessed to him, in an interview on the banks of the Rhine, that many of the important nobles of Rome had de- signs against his life. (*) Against such animosities he had the task, no easy one, of directing the elections. The Roman constitution caused new candidates to spring up every year for honours; and it was indis- pensable to have partisans amongst the two consuls, the eight praetors, and the ten tribunes named in the comitia. At all epochs, even at the time when the aristocracy exercised the greatest influence, it could not prevent its opponents from introducing them- selves into the public offices. Moreover, the three who had made common cause had reason to fear the ambition and ingratitude of the men whom they had raised, and who would soon seek to become their equals. There was still a last danger, and perhaps the most serious : it was the impatience and want of discipline of the democratic party, of which they were the chiefs. In face of these dangers, the triumvirs agreed to cause L. Piso, the father-in-law of Caesar, and A. Ga- binius, the devoted partisan of Pompey, to be elected to the consulship the following year. They were, in fact, designated consuls on the 18th of October, in spite of the efforts of the nobles and the accusation of Cato against Gabinius. At the end of the year 695, Caesar and Bibulus 0) " He (Ariovistus) knows, by his messengers, that in causing Caesar's death he would gratify a number of great persons at Rome ; his death would win to him their favour and friendship." (Caesar, War in Gaul, I. 44.) CONSULSHIP OF CAESAR AND BIBULUS. 455 ceased their functions. The latter, in reporting his conduct according to custom, endeavoured to paint in the blackest colours the state of the Republic ; but Clodius prevented him from speaking. ( a ) As for Caesar, his presentiment of the attacks to which he was to be subjected was only too well founded ; for he had hardly quitted office, when the praetor L. Do- niitius Ahenobarbus, and C. Memmius, friends of Cic- ero, ( 2 ) proposed to the Senate to prosecute him for the acts committed during his consulate, and especial- ly for not having paid attention to the omens. From this proposal the Senate recoiled. ( 3 ) Still, they brought Caesar's questor to trial. He himself was cited by the tribune L. Antistius. But the whole col- lege refused to entertain the charge, in virtue of the law Memmia, which forbad an accusation to be enter- tained against a citizen while absent on the public service. (*) Caesar found himself once more at the gates of Rome, invested with the imperium, and, according to Cicero's letters, ( 5 ) at the head of numerous troops, composed apparently of veteran volunteers. ( 6 ) He (') Dio Cassias, XXXVIII. 12. ( s ) Cicero, Letters to Quintus, I. 2. ( 3 ) Suetonius, Ccesar, 23 ; Nero, 2. (') Suetonius, Ccesar, 23. Valerius Maximus, III. 7, 9, ( 5 ) "At the gates of Rome there was a general invested with authority for many years, and at the head of a great army (cum magno exercitu). Was he my enemy ? I do not say he was ; but I knew that when people said so, he was silent." (Cicero, Oration after his return in the Senate, 13.) "Oppresses, TOS, inquit, tenebo exercitu Csesaris." (Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 16.) " Clodius said he would invade the curia at the head of Csesar's army." (Cic- ero, Oration on the Report of the Augurs, 22.) "Cffisar had already gone out of Rome with his army." (Dio Cassias, XXXVIII. 17.) (*) In several passages of Cicero's letters, Caesar is represented as being at 456 HISTORY OF JULIUS C^SAR. even remained there more than two months, in order to watch that his departure should not become the signal for the overthrow of his work. VI. During this time, Clodius, a restless and tur- i aw of ciodius bulent spirit, ( T ) proud of the support Exile of cicero. ^^ fa h a d ] en t the triumvirs, as well the gates of Rome at the head of his army ; and yet we know from his Com- mentaries that at the beginning of the war in Gaul he had only four legions, of which one was stationed on the banks of the Rhine, and the three others at Aquileia, in Illyria. It is, therefore, difficult to understand how he could have had troops at the gates of Rome, of which no further mention is made in the course of his campaign. The only way to reconcile the letters of Cicero with the Commentaries is to allow that Caesar, independently of the legions which he found beyond the frontiers of Italy, summoned to his standard the volunteers and Roman veterans who were desirous of following him. Mustering at the gate of Rome, they joined him subsequently in Gaul, and were merged in the legions. This supposition is the more probable, as in 700, when the question of re-electing Pompey and Crassus to the consulship was brought forward, Cae- sar sent to Rome a great number of soldiers to vote in the comitia. Hence, as all the legions had been recruited in Cisalpine Gaul, the inhabitants of which did not possess the right of Roman city, he must have had other Roman citi- zens in his army. Besides, if Caesar appealed to the veterans, he only followed the example of nearly all the Roman generals, and among others of Scipio, Flamininus, and Marius. In fact, when Cornelius Scipio departed for the war against Antiochus, there were five thousand volunteers at the gates of Rome citizens as well as allies who had served in all the campaigns of his brother, Scipio Africanus. (Titus Livius, XXXVII. 4.) "When Flamininus left to join the legions in Macedonia, he took with him three thousand veterans who had fought against Hannibal and Hasdrubal." (Plutarch, Flamininus, III.) "Marius, before leaving for the war against Jugurtha, appealed to all the bravest soldiers of Latium. He knew most of them for having served under his eyes, and the rest by reputation. By force of solicitation, he obliged even the veterans to go with him." (Sallust, War of Jugurtha, LXXXIV.) (*) "At the present moment he (Clodius) is agitating and raging ; he knows not what he wants ; he makes hostile demonstrations on this side and on that, and seems to intend to leave to chance where he shall strike. When he gives a thought to the unpopularity of the present state of things, you would say he was going to fly at the authors of it ; but when he sees on which side are the means of action and the armed force, he turns round against us." (Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 22.) CONSULSHIP OF OZESAR AND BIBULUS. 457 as of that lie had received from them, listened only to his passion, and caused laws to be enacted, some of which, flattering the populace and even the slaves, menaced the State with anarchy. In virtue of these laws, he re-established political associations (collegia), clubs dangerous to public tranquillity, (*) which Syl- la had dissolved, but which were subsequently re- organised to be again suppressed in 690 ; ( 2 ) he made gratuitous distributions of wheat to the people ; took from the censors the right of excluding from the Sen- ate anybody they wished, allowing them only to re- ject those who were under condemnation ; ( 3 ) forbad the magistrates taking omens, or observing the sky on the day of the deliberation of the comitia ; ( 4 ) and, lastly, he inflicted severe penalties on those who had condemned Roman citizens to death unheard. This last enactment was evidently directed against Cicero, although his name was not mentioned in it. In order to ensure its adoption, its author desired the acqui- escence of Caesar, who was detained at the gates of Rome by the military command, which forbad him to enter. Clodius then convoked the people outside the walls, and when he asked the proconsul his opinion, the latter replied that it was well known by his vote ( l ) These clubs (collegia compitalitia) had an organisation which was almost military, divided into districts, and composed exclusively of the proletaries. (See Mommsen, Roman History, III. 290.) "The slaves enrolled under pre- tence of forming corporations. " (Cicero, Oration after his return in the Sen- ate, 13.) (*) An exception, however, was made in 690, in favour of the corporations of artisans. (Asconius, In Pisone, IV. p. 7; In Cornelians, p. 75, edit. Orelli.) ( 3 ) Cicero, Oration against Piso, 4. Asconius, On the Oration of Cicero against Piso, pp. 7, 8, edit. Orelli. Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 13. () Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 13. 20 458 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. in the affair of the accomplices of Catiline ; that, nev- ertheless, he disapproved of a law which pronounced penalties upon facts which belonged to the past. ( ! ) On this occasion the Senate went into mourning, in order to exhibit its discontent to all eyes ; but the consuls Gabinius and Piso obliged the Senate to re- linquish this ill-tuned demonstration. Caesar, in order to defend Cicero from the danger which threatened him, offered to take him with him to Gaul as his lieutenant. ( 2 ) Cicero rejected the offer, deceiving himself through his confidence in his own influence, ( 3 ) and reckoning, moreover, on the protec- tion of Pompey. It appears positive from this that Clodius exceeded Caesar's views, a new proof that such instruments when employed are two-edged swords, which even the most skilful hands find it difficult to direct. It is thus that later, Vatinius, aspiring to be- come praetor, received from his old patron this strong warning: "Vatinius has done nothing gratuitously 0) Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 17. ( 3 ) "I receive from Caesar the most flattering invitations, asking me to join him as lieutenant." (Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 17.) " He has got my en- emy (Clodius) transferred to the plebeian order : either because he was irrita- ted to see that even his kindness ould not persuade me to join his side, or be- cause he yielded to the urgency of others. My refusal could not have been regarded as an insult, for subsequently to it he advised me, nay, even entreated me, to serve him as lieutenant. I did not accept this office, not because I thought it beneath me, but because I was far from suspecting that the State could possibly have, after Caesar, any consuls so infamous as these (Piso and Gabinius)." (Cicero, Oration about the Consular Provinces, 17.) ( 3 ) " Thanks to the pains I take, my popularity and my strength increase daily. I do not meddle with politics in any way not the least. My house is crowded ; my friends gather round me when I go abroad ; my consulate seems to be beginning afresh. It rains protestations of attachment ; and my confi- dence is such that at times I long for the strife, which I ought always to dread." (Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 22.) "Let Clodius bring his accusation. Italy will rise as one man." (Cicero, Letters to Quintus, I. 2.) CONSULSHIP OF C2ESAR AND BIBULUS. 459 during his tribuneship ; he who only looks for money ought to dispense with honours." ( l ) In fact, Caesar, whose efforts to re-establish the popular institutions had never slackened, desired neither anarchy nor dem- ocratic laws ; and just as he had not approved of the proposal of Manilius for the emancipation of the freed- men, so he opposed the reorganisation of the corpora- tions, the gratuitous distributions of wheat, and the projects of vengeance entertained by Clodius, who, however, continually boasted of his support. Crassus, on his part, desiring to be useful to Cicero without compromising himself, ( 2 ) engaged his son to go to his aid. As for Pompey, wavering between fear and friendship, he devised a pretext not to receive Cic- ero when he came to seek his support. Deprived of this last resource, the great orator abandoned his de- lusions, and after some show of resistance voluntarily withdrew. Scarcely had he quitted Rome when the law against him was passed without opposition, with the concurrence of those whom Cicero had looked upon as his friends. ( 3 ) His goods were confiscated, his house razed, and he was exiled to a distance of four hundred miles. Caesar had skilfully taken precautions that his in- fluence should be felt at Rome during his absence, as much as the instability of the magistracy would per- mit. By the aid of his daughter Julia, whose charms and mental accomplishments captivated her husband, Caesar retained his influence over Pompey. By his favours to the son of Crassus, a young man of great (') Cicero, Oration against Vatinius, 16. ( a ) Plutarch, Pompey, 48. (') Plutarch, Cicero, 41. 460 HISTORY OF JULIUS CJESAK. merit, who was appointed his lieutenant, he assured himself of his father. Cicero is removed, but soon Csesar will consent to his return, and will conciliate him again by taking into his favour his brother Quin- tus. There remains the opposition of Cato. Clodius undertakes to remove him under the pretence of an honourable mission : he is sent to Cyprus to dethrone King Ptolemy, whose irregularities excited the hatred of his subjects. ( l ) Finally, all the men of importance who had any chance of obtaining employment are gained to the cause of Caesar; some even engage them- selves to him by writing. ( 2 ) He can thus proceed to his province ; Destiny is about to open a new path ; immortal glory awaits him beyond the Alps, and this glory, reflected upon Rome, will change the face of the world. VII. We have shown Caesar obeying only his po- me Explanation of litical convictions, whether as the ardent uct " promoter of all popular measures, or as the declared partisan of Pompey ; we have shown him aspiring with a noble ambition to power and honours ; but we are not ignorant that historians in general give other motives for his conduct. They represent him, in 684, as having already his plans denned, his schemes arranged, his instruments all pre- pared. They attribute to him an absolute prescience of the future, the faculty of directing men and things at his will, and of rendering each one, unknowingly, the accomplice of his profound designs. All his actions have a hidden motive, which the historian (') Vellei us Patemilus, 11.45. ( 3 ) Suetonius, XXIII. CONSULSHIP OF C^SAR AND BIBULUS. 4.QI boasts of having discovered. If Caesar raises up again the standard of Marius, makes himself the de- fender of the oppressed, and the persecutor of the hired assassins of past tyranny, it is to acquire a con- currence necessary to his ambition ; if he contends with Cicero in favour of legality in the trial of the accomplices of Catiline, or to maintain an agrarian law of which he approves the political aim, or if, to repair a great injustice of Sylla, he supports the res- toration of the children of the proscribed to their rights, it is for the purpose of compromising the great orator with the popular party. If, on the con- trary, he places his influence at the service of Pom- pey ; if, on the occasion of the war against the pirates, he contributes to obtain for him an authority consid- ered exorbitant ; if he seconds the plebiscitum which further confers upon him the command of the army against Mithridates ; if subsequently he causes extra- ordinary honours to be awarded him, though absent, it is still with the Machiavellian aim of making the greatness of Pompey redound to his own profit. So that, if he defends liberty, it is to ruin his adversaries ; if he defends power, it is to accustom the Romans to tyranny. Finally, if Caesar seeks the consulate, like all the members of the Roman nobility, it is, say they, because he already foresees, beyond the fasces of the consul and the dust of battles, the dictatorship and even the throne. Such an interpretation results from the too common fault of not being able to appreciate facts in themselves, but according to the complexion which subsequent events have given them. Strange inconsistency, to impute to great men at 462 HISTORY OF JULIUS CAESAR. the same time mean motives and superhuman fore- thought ! No, it was not the miserable thought of checking Cicero which guided Caesar ; he had not recourse to a tactic more or less skilful : he obeyed a profound conviction, and what proves it indisputably is, that, once elevated to power, his first acts are to execute, as consul or dictator, what as a citizen he had supported : witness the agrarian law and the res- toration of the proscribed. No, if he supports Pom- pey, it is not because he thinks that he can degrade him after having once elevated him, but because this illustrious captain had embraced the same cause as himself; for it would not have been given to any one to read so far into the future as to predict the use which the conqueror of Mithridates would make of his triumphs and veritable popularity. In fact, when he disembarked in Italy, Home was in anxiety : will he disband his army ? ( : ) Such was from all quar- ters the cry of alarm. If he returns as a master, no one is able to resist him. Contrary to the gener- al expectation, Ponipey disbanded his troops. How then could Caesar foresee beforehand a moderation then so unusual ? Is it truer to say that Caesar, having become pro- consul, aspired to the sovereign power ? No ; in de- parting for Gaul, he could no more have thought of reigning over Rome, than could General Buonaparte, starting for Italy in 1796, have dreamed of the Em- 0) "The rumonrs which preceded Pompey had caused great consternation there, because it had been said that he meant to enter the city with his army." (Plutarch, Pompey, 45.) " However, every one dreaded Pompey in the great- est degree; no one knew whether he would disband his army or not." (Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 44.) CONSULSHIP OF CAESAR AND BIBULUS. pire. Was it possible for Caesar to foresee that, dur- ing a sojourn of ten years in Gaul, he would there link Fortune to him for ever, and that, at the end of this long space of time, the public mind at Koine would still be favourable to his projects ? Could he foresee that the death of his daughter would break the ties which attached him to Poinpey ? that Cras- sus, instead of returning in triumph from the East, would be conquered and slain by the Parthians? that the murder of Clodius would throw all Italy into commotion ? and, finally, that anarchy, which he had sought to stifle by the triumvirate, would be the cause of his own elevation ? Caesar had before his eyes great examples for his guidance; he marched in the track of the Scipios and of Paulus JEmilius ; the hatred of his enemies forced him, like Sylla, to seize upon the dictatorship, but for a more noble cause, and by a^ course of proceeding exempt from vengeance and cruelty. Let us not continually seek little passions in great souls. The success of superior men, and it is a con- soling thought, is due rather to the loftiness of their sentiments than to the speculations of selfishness and cunning; this success depends much more on their skill in taking advantage of circumstances, than on that presumption, blind enough to believe itself capa- ble of creating events, which are in the hands of God alone. Certainly, Caesar had faith in his destiny, and confidence in his genius ; but faith is an instinct, not a calculation, and genius foresees the future without understanding its mysterious progress. END OF VOL. I. DC SB LIBRARY A 000 547 202 2