perlengkapan rafting

history of julius caesar by jacob abbott -chapter i.marius and sylla. there were three great european nations inancient days, each of which furnished history with a hero: the greeks, thecarthaginians, and the romans. alexander was the hero of the greeks. he was king of macedon, a country lyingnorth of greece proper. he headed an army of his countrymen, andmade an excursion for conquest and glory into asia. he made himself master of all that quarterof the globe, and reigned over it in

babylon, till he brought himself to anearly grave by the excesses into which his boundless prosperity allured him. his fame rests on his triumphant success inbuilding up for himself so vast an empire, and the admiration which his career hasalways excited among mankind is heightened by the consideration of his youth, and of the noble and generous impulses whichstrongly marked his character. the carthaginian hero was hannibal. we class the carthaginians among theeuropean nations of antiquity; for, in respect to their origin, theircivilization, and all their commercial and

political relations, they belonged to the european race, though it is true that theircapital was on the african side of the mediterranean sea.hannibal was the great carthaginian hero. he earned his fame by the energy andimplacableness of his hate. the work of his life was to keep a vastempire in a state of continual anxiety and terror for fifty years, so that his claimto greatness and glory rests on the determination, the perseverance, and the success with which he fulfilled hisfunction of being, while he lived, the terror of the world.the roman hero was caesar.

he was born just one hundred years beforethe christian era. his renown does not depend, like that ofalexander, on foreign conquests, nor, like that of hannibal, on the terrible energy ofhis aggressions upon foreign foes, but upon his protracted and dreadful contests with, and ultimate triumphs over, his rivals andcompetitors at home. when he appeared upon the stage, the romanempire already included nearly all of the world that was worth possessing. there were no more conquests to be made. caesar did, indeed, enlarge, in somedegree, the boundaries of the empire; but

the main question in his day was, whoshould possess the power which preceding conquerors had acquired. the roman empire, as it existed in thosedays, must not be conceived of by the reader as united together under one compactand consolidated government. it was, on the other hand, a vast congeriesof nations, widely dissimilar in every respect from each other, speaking variouslanguages, and having various customs and laws. they were all, however, more or lessdependent upon, and connected with, the great central power.

some of these countries were provinces, andwere governed by officers appointed and sent out by the authorities at rome. these governors had to collect the taxes oftheir provinces, and also to preside over and direct, in many important respects, theadministration of justice. they had, accordingly, abundantopportunities to enrich themselves while thus in office, by collecting more moneythan they paid over to the government at home, and by taking bribes to favor therich man's cause in court. thus the more wealthy and prosperousprovinces were objects of great competition among aspirants for office at rome.

leading men would get these appointments,and, after remaining long enough in their provinces to acquire a fortune, would comeback to rome, and expend it in intrigues and maneuvers to obtain higher officesstill. whenever there was any foreign war to becarried on with a distant nation or tribe, there was always a great eagerness amongall the military officers of the state to be appointed to the command. they each felt sure that they shouldconquer in the contest, and they could enrich themselves still more rapidly by thespoils of victory in war, than by extortion and bribes in the government of a provincein peace.

then, besides, a victorious general comingback to rome always found that his military renown added vastly to his influence andpower in the city. he was welcomed with celebrations andtriumphs; the people flocked to see him and to shout his praise. he placed his trophies of victory in thetemples, and entertained the populace with games and shows, and with combats ofgladiators or of wild beasts, which he had brought home with him for this purpose inthe train of his army. while he was thus enjoying his triumph, hispolitical enemies would be thrown into the back ground and into the shade; unless,indeed, some one of them might himself be

earning the same honors in some other field, to come back in due time, and claimhis share of power and celebrity in his turn. in this case, rome would be sometimesdistracted and rent by the conflicts and contentions of military rivals, who hadacquired powers too vast for all the civil influences of the republic to regulate orcontrol. there had been two such rivals just beforethe time of caesar, who had filled the world with their quarrels. they were marius and sylla.their very names have been, in all ages of

the world, since their day, the symbols ofrivalry and hate. they were the representatives respectivelyof the two great parties into which the roman state, like every other community inwhich the population at large have any voice in governing, always has been, and probably always will be divided, the upperand the lower; or, as they were called in those days, the patrician and the plebeian. sylla was the patrician; the higher andmore aristocratic portions of the community were on his side.marius was the favorite of the plebeian masses.

in the contests, however, which they wagedwith each other, they did not trust to the mere influence of votes. they relied much more upon the soldiersthey could gather under their respective standards and upon their power ofintimidating, by means of them, the roman assemblies. there was a war to be waged withmithridates, a very powerful asiatic monarch, which promised great opportunitiesfor acquiring fame and plunder. sylla was appointed to the command. while he was absent, however, upon somecampaign in italy, marius contrived to have

the decision reversed, and the commandtransferred to him two officers, called tribunes, were sent to sylla's camp toinform him of the change. sylla killed the officers for daring tobring him such a message, and began immediately to march toward rome. in retaliation for the murder of thetribunes, the party of marius in the city killed some of sylla's prominent friendsthere, and a general alarm spread itself throughout the population. the senate, which was a sort of house oflords, embodying mainly the power and influence of the patrician party, and was,of course, on sylla's side, sent out to

him, when he had arrived within a few milesof the city, urging him to come no further. he pretended to comply; he marked out theground for a camp; but he did not, on that account, materially delay his march. the next morning he was in possession ofthe city. the friends of marius attempted to resisthim, by throwing stones upon his troops from the roofs of the houses. sylla ordered every house from which thesesymptoms of resistance appeared to be set on fire. thus the whole population of a vast andwealthy city were thrown into a condition

of extreme danger and terror, by theconflicts of two great bands of armed men, each claiming to be their friends. marius was conquered in this struggle, andfled for his life. many of the friends whom he left behind himwere killed. the senate were assembled, and, at sylla'sorders, a decree was passed declaring marius a public enemy, and offering areward to any one who would bring his head back to rome. marius fled, friendless and alone, to thesouthward, hunted every where by men who were eager to get the reward offered forhis head.

after various romantic adventures andnarrow escapes, he succeeded in making his way across the mediterranean sea, and foundat last a refuge in a hut among the ruins of carthage. he was an old man, being now over seventyyears of age. of course, sylla thought that his greatrival and enemy was now finally disposed of, and he accordingly began to makepreparations for his asiatic campaign. he raised his army, built and equipped afleet, and went away. as soon as he was gone, marius's friends inthe city began to come forth, and to take measures for reinstating themselves inpower.

marius returned, too, from africa, and soongathered about him a large army. being the friend, as he pretended, of thelower classes of society, he collected vast multitudes of revolted slaves, outlaws, andother desperadoes, and advanced toward rome. he assumed, himself, the dress, and air,and savage demeanor of his followers. his countenance had been rendered haggardand cadaverous partly by the influence of exposures, hardships, and suffering uponhis advanced age, and partly by the stern and moody plans and determinations of revenge which his mind was perpetuallyrevolving.

he listened to the deputations which theroman senate sent out to him from time to time, as he advanced toward the city, butrefused to make any terms. he moved forward with all the outwarddeliberation and calmness suitable to his years, while all the ferocity of a tigerwas burning within. as soon as he had gained possession of thecity, he began his work of destruction. he first beheaded one of the consuls, andordered his head to be set up, as a public spectacle, in the most conspicuous place inthe city. this was the beginning. all the prominent friends of sylla, men ofthe highest rank and station, were then

killed, wherever they could be found,without sentence, without trial, without any other accusation, even, than the military decision of marius that they werehis enemies, and must die. for those against whom he felt any specialanimosity, he contrived some special mode of execution. one, whose fate he wished particularly tosignalize, was thrown down from the tarpeian rock. the tarpeian rock was a precipice aboutfifty feet high, which is still to be seen in rome, from which the worst of statecriminals were sometimes thrown.

they were taken up to the top by a stair,and were then hurled from the summit, to die miserably, writhing in agony aftertheir fall, upon the rocks below. the tarpeian rock received its name fromthe ancient story of tarpeia. the tale is, that tarpeia was a roman girl,who lived at a time in the earliest periods of the roman history, when the city wasbesieged by an army from are of the neighboring nations. besides their shields, the story is thatthe soldiers had golden bracelets upon their arms.they wished tarpeia to open the gates and let them in.

she promised to do so if they would giveher their bracelets; but, as she did not know the name of the shining ornaments, thelanguage she used to designate them was, "those things you have upon your arms." the soldiers acceded to her terms; sheopened the gates, and they, instead of giving her the bracelets, threw theirshields upon her as they passed, until the poor girl was crushed down with them anddestroyed. this was near the tarpeian rock, whichafterward took her name. the rock is now found to be perforated by agreat many subterranean passages, the remains, probably, of ancient quarries.

some of these galleries are now walled up;others are open; and the people who live around the spot believe, it is said, tothis day, that tarpeia herself sits, enchanted, far in the interior of these caverns, covered with gold and jewels, butthat whoever attempts to find her is fated by an irresistible destiny to lose his way,and he never returns. the last story is probably as true as theother. marius continued his executions andmassacres until the whole of sylla's party had been slain or put to flight. he made every effort to discover sylla'swife and child, with a view to destroying

them also, but they could not be found. some friends of sylla, taking compassion ontheir innocence and helplessness, concealed them, and thus saved marius from thecommission of one intended crime. marius was disappointed, too, in some othercases, where men whom he had intended to kill destroyed themselves to baffle hisvengeance. one shut himself up in a room with burningcharcoal, and was suffocated with the fumes. another bled himself to death upon a publicaltar, calling down the judgments of the god to whom he offered this dreadfulsacrifice, upon the head of the tyrant

whose atrocious cruelty he was thusattempting to evade. by the time that marius had got fairlyestablished in his new position, and was completely master of rome, and the city hadbegun to recover a little from the shock and consternation produced by hisexecutions, he fell sick. he was attacked with an acute disease ofgreat violence. the attack was perhaps produced, and wascertainly aggravated by, the great mental excitements through which he had passedduring his exile, and in the entire change of fortune which had attended his return. from being a wretched fugitive, hiding forhis life among gloomy and desolate ruins,

he found himself suddenly transferred tothe mastery of the world. his mind was excited, too, in respect tosylla, whom he had not yet reached or subdued, but who was still prosecuting hiswar against mithridates. marius had had him pronounced by the senatean enemy to his country, and was meditating plans to reach him in his distant province,considering his triumph incomplete as long as his great rival was at liberty andalive. the sickness cut short these plans, but itonly inflamed to double violence the excitement and the agitations whichattended them. as the dying tyrant tossed restlessly uponhis bed, it was plain that the delirious

ravings which he began soon to utter wereexcited by the same sentiments of insatiable ambition and ferocious hate whose calmer dictates he had obeyed whenwell. he imagined that he had succeeded insupplanting sylla in his command, and that he was himself in asia at the head of hisarmies. impressed with this idea, he stared wildlyaround; he called aloud the name of mithridates; he shouted orders to imaginarytroops; he struggled to break away from the restraints which the attendants about his bedside imposed, to attack the phantom foeswhich haunted him in his dreams.

this continued for several days, and whenat last nature was exhausted by the violence of these paroxysms of phrensy, thevital powers which had been for seventy long years spending their strength in deeds of selfishness, cruelty, and hatred, foundtheir work done, and sunk to revive no more. marius left a son, of the same name withhimself, who attempted to retain his father's power; but sylla, having broughthis war with mithridates to a conclusion, was now on his return from asia, and it was very evident that a terrible conflict wasabout to ensue.

sylla advanced triumphantly through thecountry, while marius the younger and his partisans concentrated their forces aboutthe city, and prepared for defense. the people of the city were divided, thearistocratic faction adhering to the cause of sylla, while the democratic influencessided with marius. political parties rise and fall, in almostall ages of the world, in alternate fluctuations, like those of the tides. the faction of marius had been for sometime in the ascendency, and it was now its turn to fall. sylla found, therefore, as he advanced,every thing favorable to the restoration of

his own party to power.he destroyed the armies which came out to oppose him. he shut up the young marius in a city notfar from rome, where he had endeavored to find shelter and protection, and thenadvanced himself and took possession of the city. there he caused to be enacted again thehorrid scenes of massacre and murder which marius had perpetrated before, going,however, as much beyond the example which he followed as men usually do in thecommission of crime. he gave out lists of the names of men whomhe wished to have destroyed, and these

unhappy victims of his revenge were to behunted out by bands of reckless soldiers, in their dwellings, or in the places of public resort in the city, and dispatchedby the sword wherever they could be found. the scenes which these deeds created in avast and populous city can scarcely be conceived of by those who have neverwitnessed the horrors produced by the massacres of civil war. sylla himself went through with this workin the most cool and unconcerned manner, as if he were performing the most ordinaryduties of an officer of state. he called the senate together one day, and,while he was addressing them, the attention

of the assembly was suddenly distracted bythe noise of outcries and screams in the neighboring streets from those who weresuffering military execution there. the senators started with horror at thesound. sylla, with an air of great composure andunconcern, directed the members to listen to him, and to pay no attention to what waspassing elsewhere. the sounds that they heard were, he said,only some correction which was bestowed by his orders on certain disturbers of thepublic peace. sylla's orders for the execution of thosewho had taken an active part against him were not confined to rome.

they went to the neighboring cities and todistant provinces, carrying terror and distress every where. still, dreadful as these evils were, it ispossible for us, in the conceptions which we form, to overrate the extent of them. in reading the history of the roman empireduring the civil wars of marius and sylla, one might easily imagine that the wholepopulation of the country was organized into the two contending armies, and were employed wholly in the work of fightingwith and massacring each other. but nothing like this can be true.

it is obviously but a small part, afterall, of an extended community that can be ever actively and personally engaged inthese deeds of violence and blood. man is not naturally a ferocious wildbeast. on the contrary, he loves, ordinarily, tolive in peace and quietness, to till his lands and tend his flocks, and to enjoy theblessings of peace and repose. it is comparatively but a small number inany age of the world, and in any nation, whose passions of ambition, hatred, orrevenge become so strong as that they love bloodshed and war. but these few, when they once get weaponsinto their hands, trample recklessly and

mercilessly upon the rest. one ferocious human tiger, with a spear ora bayonet to brandish, will tyrannize as he pleases over a hundred quiet men, who arearmed only with shepherds' crooks, and whose only desire is to live in peace withtheir wives and their children. thus, while marius and sylla, with somehundred thousand armed and reckless followers, were carrying terror and dismaywherever they went, there were many millions of herdsmen and husbandmen in the roman world who were dwelling in all thepeace and quietness they could command, improving with their peaceful industryevery acre where corn would ripen or grass

grow. it was by taxing and plundering theproceeds of this industry that the generals and soldiers, the consuls and praetors, andproconsuls and propraetors, filled their treasuries, and fed their troops, and paidthe artisans for fabricating their arms. with these avails they built themagnificent edifices of rome, and adorned its environs with sumptuous villas. as they had the power and the arms in theirhands, the peaceful and the industrious had no alternative but to submit. they went on as well as they could withtheir labors, bearing patiently every

interruption, returning again to till theirfields after the desolating march of the army had passed away, and repairing the injuries of violence, and the lossessustained by plunder, without useless repining. they looked upon an armed government as anecessary and inevitable affliction of humanity, and submitted to its destructiveviolence as they would submit to an earthquake or a pestilence. the tillers of the soil manage better inthis country at the present day. they have the power in their own hands, andthey watch very narrowly to prevent the

organization of such hordes of armeddesperadoes as have held the peaceful inhabitants of europe in terror from theearliest periods down to the present day. when sylla returned to rome, and tookpossession of the supreme power there, in looking over the lists of public men, therewas one whom he did not know, at first what to do with. it was the young julius caesar, the subjectof this history. caesar was, by birth, patrician, havingdescended from a long line of noble ancestors. there had been, before his day, a greatmany caesars who had held the highest

offices of the state, and many of them hadbeen celebrated in history. he naturally, therefore, belonged tosylla's side, as sylla was the representative of the patrician interest.but then caesar had personally been inclined toward the party of marius. the elder marius had married his aunt, and,besides, caesar himself had married the daughter of cinna, who had been the mostefficient and powerful of marius's coadjutors and friends. caesar was at this time a very young man,and he was of an ardent and reckless character, though he had, thus far, takenno active part in public affairs.

sylla overlooked him for a time, but atlength was about to put his name on the list of the proscribed. some of the nobles, who were friends bothof sylla and of caesar too, interceded for the young man; sylla yielded to theirrequest, or, rather, suspended his decision, and sent orders to caesar torepudiate his wife, the daughter of cinna. her name was cornelia.caesar absolutely refused to repudiate his wife. he was influenced in this decision partlyby affection for cornelia, and partly by a sort of stern and indomitableinsubmissiveness, which formed, from his

earliest years, a prominent trait in his character, and which led him, during allhis life, to brave every possible danger rather than allow himself to be controlled. caesar knew very well that, when this hisrefusal should be reported to sylla, the next order would be for his destruction.he accordingly fled. sylla deprived him of his titles andoffices, confiscated his wife's fortune and his own patrimonial estate, and put hisname upon the list of the public enemies. thus caesar became a fugitive and an exile. the adventures which befell him in hiswanderings will be described in the

following chapter.sylla was now in the possession of absolute power. he was master of rome, and of all thecountries over which rome held sway. still he was nominally not a magistrate,but only a general returning victoriously from his asiatic campaign, and putting todeath, somewhat irregularly, it is true, by a sort of martial law persons whom he found, as he said, disturbing the publicpeace. after having thus effectually disposed ofthe power of his enemies, he laid aside, ostensibly, the government of the sword,and submitted himself and his future

measures to the control of law. he placed himself ostensibly at thedisposition of the city. they chose him dictator, which wasinvesting him with absolute and unlimited he remained on this, the highest pinnacleof worldly ambition, a short time, and then resigned his power, and devoted theremainder of his days to literary pursuits and pleasures. monster as he was in the cruelties which heinflicted upon his political foes, he was intellectually of a refined and cultivatedmind, and felt an ardent interest in the promotion of literature and the arts.

the quarrel between marius and sylla, inrespect to every thing which can make such a contest great, stands in the estimationof mankind as the greatest personal quarrel which the history of the world has everrecorded. its origin was in the simple personalrivalry of two ambitious men. it involved, in its consequences, the peaceand happiness of the world. in their reckless struggles, the fiercecombatants trampled on every thing that came in their way, and destroyedmercilessly, each in his turn, all that opposed them. mankind have always execrated their crimes,but have never ceased to admire the

frightful and almost superhuman energy withwhich they committed them. > history of julius caesar by jacob abbottchapter ii. caesar's early years. caesar does not seem to have been muchdisheartened and depressed by his misfortunes. he possessed in his early life more thanthe usual share of buoyancy and light- heartedness of youth, and he went away fromrome to enter, perhaps, upon years of exile and wandering, with a determination to face

boldly and to brave the evils and dangerswhich surrounded him, and not to succumb to them. sometimes they who become great in theirmaturer years are thoughtful, grave, and sedate when young.it was not so, however, with caesar. he was of a very gay and livelydisposition. he was tall and handsome in his person,fascinating in his manners, and fond of society, as people always are who know orwho suppose that they shine in it. he had seemed, in a word, during hisresidence at rome, wholly intent upon the pleasures of a gay and joyous life, andupon the personal observation which his

rank, his wealth, his agreeable manners andhis position in society secured for him. in fact, they who observed and studied hischaracter in these early years, thought that, although his situation was veryfavorable for acquiring power and renown, he would never feel any strong degree of ambition to avail himself of itsadvantages. he was too much interested, they thought,in personal pleasures ever to become great, either as a military commander or astatesman. sylla, however, thought differently. he had penetration enough to perceive,beneath all the gayety and love of pleasure

which characterized caesar's youthful life,the germs of a sterner and more aspiring spirit, which, he was very sorry to see, was likely to expend its future energies inhostility to him. by refusing to submit to sylla's commands,caesar had, in effect, thrown himself entirely upon the other party, and wouldbe, of course, in future identified with sylla consequently looked upon him now as aconfirmed and settled enemy. some friends of caesar among the patricianfamilies interceded in his behalf with sylla again, after he had fled from rome. they wished sylla to pardon him, sayingthat he was a mere boy and could do him no

harm. sylla shook his head, saying that, young ashe was, he saw in him indications of a future power which he thought was more tobe dreaded than that of many mariuses. one reason which led sylla to form thisopinion of caesar was, that the young nobleman, with all his love of gayety andpleasure, had not neglected his studies, but had taken great pains to perfect himself in such intellectual pursuits asambitious men who looked forward to political influence and ascendency wereaccustomed to prosecute in those days he had studied the greek language, and read

the works of greek historians; and heattended lectures on philosophy and rhetoric, and was obviously interesteddeeply in acquiring power as a public speaker. to write and speak well gave a public mangreat influence in those days. many of the measures of the government weredetermined by the action of great assemblies of the free citizens, whichaction was itself, in a great measure, controlled by the harangues of orators who had such powers of voice and such qualitiesof mind as enabled them to gain the attention and sway the opinions of largebodies of men.

it most not be supposed, however, that thispopular power was shared by all the inhabitants of the city. at one time, when the population of thecity was about three millions the number of free citizens was only three hundredthousand. the rest were laborers, artisans, andslaves, who had no voice in public affairs. the free citizens held very frequent publicassemblies. there were various squares and open spacesin the city where such assemblies were convened, and where courts of justice wereheld. the roman name for such a square was forum.

there was one which was distinguished aboveall the rest, and was called emphatically the forum. it was a magnificent square, surrounded bysplendid edifices, and ornamented by sculptures and statues without number. there were ranges of porticoes along thesides, where the people were sheltered from the weather when necessary, though it isseldom that there is any necessity for shelter under an italian sky. in this area and under these porticoes thepeople held their assemblies, and here courts of justice were accustomed to sit.

the forum was ornamented continually withnew monuments, temples, statues, and columns by successful generals returning intriumph from foreign campaigns, and by proconsuls and praetors coming back enriched from their provinces, until it wasfairly choked up with its architectural magnificence, and it had at last to bepartially cleared again, as one would thin out too dense a forest, in order to make room for the assemblies which it was itsmain function to contain. the people of rome had, of course, noprinted books, and yet they were mentally cultivated and refined, and were qualifiedfor a very high appreciation of

intellectual pursuits and pleasures. in the absence, therefore, of allfacilities for private reading, the forum became the great central point ofattraction. the same kind of interest which, in ourday, finds its gratification in reading volumes of printed history quietly at home,or in silently perusing the columns of newspapers and magazines in libraries and reading-rooms, where a whisper is seldomheard, in caesar's day brought every body to the forum, to listen to historicalharangues, or political discussions, or forensic arguments in the midst of noisycrowds.

here all tidings centered; here allquestions were discussed and all great elections held. here were waged those ceaseless conflictsof ambition and struggles of power on which the fate of nations, and sometimes thewelfare of almost half mankind depended. of course, every ambitious man who aspiredto an ascendency over his fellow-men, wished to make his voice heard in theforum. to calm the boisterous tumult there, and tohold, as some of the roman orators could do, the vast assemblies in silent andbreathless attention, was a power as delightful in its exercise as it wasglorious in its fame.

caesar had felt this ambition, and haddevoted himself very earnestly to the study of oratory. his teacher was apollonius, a philosopherand rhetorician from rhodes. rhodes is a grecian island, near thesouthwestern coast of asia minor apollonius was a teacher of great celebrity, andcaesar became a very able writer and speaker under his instructions. his time and attention were, in fact,strangely divided between the highest and noblest intellectual avocations, and thelowest sensual pleasures of a gay and dissipated life.

the coming of sylla had, however,interrupted all; and, after receiving the dictator's command to give up his wife andabandon the marian faction, and determining to disobey it, he fled suddenly from rome, as was stated at the close of the lastchapter, at midnight, and in disguise. he was sick, too, at the time, with anintermittent fever. the paroxysm returned once in three or fourdays, leaving him in tolerable health during the interval. he went first into the country of thesabines, northeast of rome, where he wandered up and down, exposed continuallyto great dangers from those who knew that

he was an object of the great dictator's displeasure, and who were sure of favor andof a reward if they could carry his head to sylla he had to change his quarters everyday, and to resort to every possible mode of concealment. he was, however, at last discovered, andseized by a centurion. a centurion was a commander of a hundredmen; his rank and his position therefore, corresponded somewhat with those of acaptain in a modern army. caesar was not much disturbed at thisaccident. he offered the centurion a bribe sufficientto induce him to give up his prisoner, and

so escaped. the two ancient historians, whose recordscontain nearly all the particulars of the early life of caesar which are now known,give somewhat contradictory accounts of the adventures which befell him during hissubsequent wanderings. they relate, in general, the sameincidents, but in such different connections, that the precise chronologicalorder of the events which occurred can not now be ascertained. at all events, caesar, finding that he wasno longer safe in the vicinity of rome, moved gradually to the eastward, attendedby a few followers, until he reached the

sea, and there he embarked on board a shipto leave his native land altogether. after various adventures and wanderings, hefound himself at length in asia minor, and he made his way at last to the kingdom ofbithynia, on the northern shore. the name of the king of bithynia wasnicomedes. caesar joined himself to nicomedes's court,and entered into his service. in the mean time, sylla had ceased topursue him, and ultimately granted him a pardon, but whether before or after thistime is not now to be ascertained. at all events, caesar became interested inthe scenes and enjoyments of nicomedes's court, and allowed the time to pass awaywithout forming any plans for returning to

on the opposite side of asia minor, thatis, on the southern shore, there was a wild and mountainous region called cilicia. the great chain of mountains called taurusapproaches here very near to the sea, and the steep conformations of the land, which,in the interior, produce lofty ranges and summits, and dark valleys and ravines, form, along the line of the shore, capesand promontories, bounded by precipitous sides, and with deep bays and harborsbetween them. the people of cilicia were accordingly halfsailors, half mountaineers. they built swift galleys, and madeexcursions in great force over the

mediterranean sea for conquest and plunder. they would capture single ships, andsometimes even whole fleets of merchantmen. they were even strong enough on manyoccasions to land and take possession of a harbor and a town, and hold it, often, fora considerable time, against all the efforts of the neighboring powers todislodge them. in case, however, their enemies became atany time too strong for them, they would retreat to their harbors, which were sodefended by the fortresses which guarded them, and by the desperate bravery of the garrisons, that the pursuers generally didnot dare to attempt to force their way in;

and if, in any case, a town or a port wastaken, the indomitable savages would continue their retreat to the fastnesses of the mountains, where it was utterly uselessto attempt to follow them. but with all their prowess and skill asnaval combatants, and their hardihood as mountaineers, the cilicians lacked onething which is very essential in every nation to an honorable military fame. they had no poets or historians of theirown, so that the story of their deeds had to be told to posterity by their enemies. if they had been able to narrate their ownexploits, they would have figured, perhaps,

upon the page of history as a small butbrave and efficient maritime power, pursuing for many years a glorious career of conquest, and acquiring imperishablerenown by their enterprise and success. as it was, the romans, their enemies,described their deeds and gave them their designation. they called them robbers and pirates; androbbers and pirates they must forever remain. and it is, in fact, very likely true thatthe cilician commanders did not pursue their conquests and commit theirdepredations on the rights and the property

of others in quite so systematic and methodical a manner as some otherconquering states have done. they probably seized private property alittle more unceremoniously than is customary; though all belligerent nations,even in these christian ages of the world, feel at liberty to seize and confiscate private property when they find it afloatat sea, while, by a strange inconsistency, they respect it on the land. the cilician pirates considered themselvesat war with all mankind, and, whatever merchandise they found passing from port toport along the shores of the mediterranean,

they considered lawful spoil. they intercepted the corn which was goingfrom sicily to rome, and filled their own granaries with it. they got rich merchandise from the ships ofalexandria, which brought, sometimes, gold, and gems, and costly fabrics from the east;and they obtained, often, large sums of money by seizing men of distinction and wealth, who were continually passing to andfro between italy and greece, and holding them for a ransom. they were particularly pleased to getpossession in this way of roman generals

and officers of state, who were going outto take the command of armies, or who were returning from their provinces with thewealth which they had accumulated there. many expeditions were fitted out and manynaval commanders were commissioned to sup press and subdue these common enemies ofmankind, as the romans called them. at one time, while a distinguished general,named antonius, was in pursuit of them at the head of a fleet, a party of the piratesmade a descent upon the italian coast, south of rome, at nicenum, where the ancient patrimonial mansion of this veryantonius was situated, and took away several members of his family as captives,and so compelled him to ransom them by

paying a very large sum of money. the pirates grew bolder and bolder inproportion to their success. they finally almost stopped all intercoursebetween italy and greece, neither the merchants daring to expose theirmerchandise, nor the passengers their persons to such dangers. they then approached nearer and nearer torome, and at last actually entered the tiber, and surprised and carried off aroman fleet which was anchored there. caesar himself fell into the hands of thesepirates at some time during the period of his wanderings.

the pirates captured the ship in which hewas sailing near pharmacusa, a small island in the northeastern part of the aegean sea. he was not at this time in the destitutecondition in which he had found himself on leaving rome, but was traveling withattendants suitable to his rank, and in such a style and manner as at once made it evident to the pirates that he was a man ofdistinction. they accordingly held him for ransom, and,in the mean time, until he could take measures for raising the money, they kepthim a prisoner on board the vessel which had captured him.

in this situation, caesar, though entirelyin the power and at the mercy of his lawless captors, assumed such an air ofsuperiority and command in all his intercourse with them as at first awakened their astonishment, then excited theiradmiration, and ended in almost subjecting them to his will.he asked them what they demanded for his ransom. they said twenty talents, which was quite alarge amount, a talent itself being a considerable sum of money. caesar laughed at this demand, and toldthem it was plain that they did not know

who he was, he would give them fiftytalents. he then sent away his attendants to theshore, with orders to proceed to certain cities where he was known, in order toprocure the money, retaining only a physician and two servants for himself. while his messengers were gone, he remainedon board the ship of his captors, assuming in every respect the air and manner oftheir master. when he wished to sleep, if they made anoise which disturbed him, he sent them orders to be still. he joined them in their sports anddiversions on the deck, surpassing them in

their feats, and taking the direction ofevery thing as if he were their acknowledged leader. he wrote orations and verses which he readto them, and if his wild auditors did not appear to appreciate the literaryexcellence of his compositions, he told them that they were stupid fools without any taste, adding, by way of apology, thatnothing better could be expected of such barbarians. the pirates asked him one day what heshould do to them if he should ever, at any future time, take them prisoners.caesar said that he would crucify every one

of them. the ransom money at length arrived.caesar paid it to the pirates, and they, faithful to their covenant, sent him in aboat to the land. he was put ashore on the coast of asiaminor. he proceeded immediately to miletus, thenearest port, equipped a small fleet there, and put to sea. he sailed at once to the roadstead wherethe pirates had been lying, and found them still at anchor there, in perfectsecurity.[1] he attacked them, seized their ships, recovered his ransom money, and tookthe men all prisoners.

he conveyed his captives to the land, andthere fulfilled his threat that he would crucify them by cutting their throats andnailing their dead bodies to crosses which his men erected for the purpose along theshore. during his absence from rome caesar went torhodes, where his former preceptor resided, and he continued to pursue there for sometime his former studies. he looked forward still to appearing oneday in the roman forum. in fact, he began to receive messages fromhis friends at home that they thought it would be safe for him to return. sylla had gradually withdrawn from power,and finally had died.

the aristocratical party were indeed stillin the ascendency, but the party of marius had begun to recover a little from thetotal overthrow with which sylla's return, and his terrible military vengeance, hadoverwhelmed them. caesar himself, therefore, they thought,might, with prudent management, be safe in returning to rome. he returned, but not to be prudent orcautious; there was no element of prudence or caution in his character.as soon as he arrived, he openly espoused the popular party. his first public act was to arraign thegovernor of the great province of

macedonia, through which he had passed onhis way to bithynia. it was a consul whom he thus impeached, anda strong partisan of sylla's. his name was dolabella. the people were astonished at his daring inthus raising the standard of resistance to sylla's power, indirectly, it is true, butnone the less really on that account. when the trial came on, and caesar appearedat the forum, he gained great applause by the vigor and force of his oratory. there was, of course, a very strong andgeneral interest felt in the case; the people all seeming to understand that, inthis attack on dolabella, caesar was

appearing as their champion, and their hopes were revived at having at last founda leader capable of succeeding marius, and building up their cause again. dolabella was ably defended by orators onthe other side, and was, of course, acquitted, for the power of sylla's partywas still supreme. all rome, however, was aroused and excitedby the boldness of caesar's attack, and by the extraordinary ability which he evincedin his mode of conducting it. he became, in fact, at once one of the mostconspicuous and prominent men in the city. encouraged by his success, and theapplauses which he received, and feeling

every day a greater and greaterconsciousness of power, he began to assume more and more openly the character of theleader of the popular party. he devoted himself to public speaking inthe forum, both before popular assemblies and in the courts of justice, where he wasemployed a great deal as an advocate to defend those who were accused of politicalcrimes. the people, considering him as their risingchampion, were predisposed to regard every thing that he did with favor, and there wasreally a great intellectual power displayed in his orations and harangues. he acquired, in a word, great celebrity byhis boldness and energy, and his boldness

and energy were themselves increased intheir turn as he felt the strength of his position increase with his growingcelebrity. at length the wife of marius, who wascaesar's aunt, died. she had lived in obscurity since herhusband's proscription and death, his party having been put down so effectually that itwas dangerous to appear to be her friend. caesar, however, made preparations for amagnificent funeral for her. there was a place in the forum, a sort ofpulpit, where public orators were accustomed to stand in addressing theassembly on great occasions. this pulpit was adorned with the brazenbeaks of ships which had been taken by the

romans in former wars the name of such abeak was rostrum; in the plural, rostra. the pulpit was itself, therefore, calledthe rostra, that is, the beaks; and the people were addressed from it on greatpublic occasions.[2] caesar pronounced a splendid panegyric upon the wife of marius, at this her funeral, from the rostra, inthe presence of a vast concourse of spectators, and he had the boldness tobring out and display to the people certain household images of marius, which had beenconcealed from view ever since his death. producing them again on such an occasionwas annulling, so far as a public orator could do it, the sentence of condemnationwhich sylla and the patrician party had

pronounced against him, and bringing him forward again as entitled to publicadmiration and applause. the patrician partisans who were presentattempted to rebuke this bold maneuver with expressions of disapprobation, but theseexpressions were drowned in the loud and long-continued bursts of applause with which the great mass of the assembledmultitude hailed and sanctioned it. the experiment was very bold and veryhazardous, but it was triumphantly successful. a short time after this caesar had anotheropportunity for delivering a funeral

oration; it was in the case of his ownwife, the daughter of cinna, who had been the colleague and coadjutor of mariusduring the days of his power. it was not usual to pronounce suchpanegyrics upon roman ladies unless they had attained to an advanced age. caesar, however, was disposed to make thecase of his own wife an exception to the ordinary rule. he saw in the occasion an opportunity togive a new impulse to the popular cause, and to make further progress in gaining thepopular favor. the experiment was successful in thisinstance too.

the people were pleased at the apparentaffection which his action evinced; and as cornelia was the daughter of cinna, he hadopportunity, under pretext of praising the birth and parentage of the deceased, to laud the men whom sylla's party hadoutlawed and destroyed. in a word, the patrician party saw withanxiety and dread that caesar was rapidly consolidating and organizing, and bringingback to its pristine strength and vigor, a party whose restoration to power would of course involve their own political, andperhaps personal ruin. caesar began soon to receive appointmentsto public office, and thus rapidly

increased his influence and power. public officers and candidates for officewere accustomed in those days to expend great sums of money in shows and spectaclesto amuse the people. caesar went beyond all limits in theseexpenditures. he brought gladiators from distantprovinces, and trained them at great expense, to fight in the enormousamphitheaters of the city, in the midst of vast assemblies of men. wild beasts were procured also from theforests of africa, and brought over in great numbers, under his direction, thatthe people might be entertained by their

combats with captives taken in war, whowere reserved for this dreadful fate. caesar gave, also, splendid entertainments,of the most luxurious and costly character, and he mingled with his guests at theseentertainments, and with the people at large on other occasions, in so complaisant and courteous a manner as to gain universalfavor. he soon, by these means, not only exhaustedall his own pecuniary resources, but plunged himself enormously into debt. it was not difficult for such a man inthose days to procure an almost unlimited credit for such purposes as these, forevery one knew that, if he finally

succeeded in placing himself, by means of the popularity thus acquired, in stationsof power, he could soon indemnify himself and all others who had aided him. the peaceful merchants, and artisans, andhusbandmen of the distant provinces over which he expected to rule, would yield therevenues necessary to fill the treasuries thus exhausted. still, caesar's expenditures were solavish, and the debts he incurred were so enormous, that those who had not the mostunbounded confidence in his capacity and his powers believed him irretrievablyruined.

the particulars, however, of thesedifficulties, and the manner in which caesar contrived to extricate himself fromthem, will be more fully detailed in the next chapter. history of julius caesar by jacob abbottchapter iii. advancement to the consulship. from this time, which was about sixty-sevenyears before the birth of christ, caesar remained for nine years generally at rome,engaged there in a constant struggle for he was successful in these efforts, risingall the time from one position of influence and honor to another, until he becamealtogether the most prominent and powerful

man in the city. a great many incidents are recorded, asattending these contests, which illustrate in a very striking manner the strangemixture of rude violence and legal formality by which rome was in those daysgoverned. many of the most important offices of thestate depended upon the votes of the people; and as the people had very littleopportunity to become acquainted with the real merits of the case in respect to questions of government, they gave theirvotes very much according to the personal popularity of the candidate.

public men had very little moral principlein those days, and they would accordingly resort to any means whatever to procurethis personal popularity. they who wanted office were accustomed tobribe influential men among the people to support them, sometimes by promising themsubordinate offices, and sometimes by the direct donation of sums of money; and they would try to please the mass of the people,who were too numerous to be paid with offices or with gold, by shows andspectacles, and entertainments of every kind which they would provide for theiramusement. this practice seems to us very absurd; andwe wonder that the roman people should

tolerate it, since it is evident that themeans for defraying these expenses must come, ultimately, in some way or other,from them. and yet, absurd as it seems, this sort ofpolicy is not wholly disused even in our day. the operas and the theaters, and othersimilar establishments in france, are sustained, in part, by the government; andthe liberality and efficiency with which this is done, forms, in some degree, the basis of the popularity of each succeedingadministration. the plan is better systematized andregulated in our day, but it is, in its

nature, substantially the same. in fact, furnishing amusements for thepeople, and also providing supplies for their wants, as well as affording themprotection, were considered the legitimate objects of government in those days. it is very different at the present time,and especially in this country. the whole community are now united in thedesire to confine the functions of government within the narrowest possiblelimits, such as to include only the preservation of public order and publicsafety. the people prefer to supply their own wantsand to provide their own enjoyments, rather

than to invest government with the power todo it for them, knowing very well that, on the latter plan, the burdens they will have to bear, though concealed for a time, mustbe doubled in the end. it must not be forgotten, however, thatthere were some reasons in the days of the romans for providing public amusements forthe people on an extended scale which do not exist now. they had very few facilities then for theprivate and separate enjoyments of home, so that they were much more inclined than thepeople of this country are now to seek pleasure abroad and in public.

the climate, too, mild and genial nearlyall the year, favored this. then they were not interested, as men arenow, in the pursuits and avocations of private industry. the people of rome were not a community ofmerchants, manufacturers, and citizens, enriching themselves, and adding to thecomforts and enjoyments of the rest of mankind by the products of their labor. they were supported, in a great measure, bythe proceeds of the tribute of foreign provinces, and by the plunder taken by thegenerals in the name of the state in foreign wars.

from the same source, too--foreignconquest--captives were brought home, to be trained as gladiators to amuse them withtheir combats, and statues and paintings to ornament the public buildings of the city. in the same manner, large quantities ofcorn, which had been taken in the provinces, were often distributed at rome. and sometimes even land itself, in largetracts, which had been confiscated by the state, or otherwise taken from the originalpossessors, was divided among the people. the laws enacted from time to time for thispurpose were called agrarian laws; and the phrase afterward passed into a sort ofproverb, inasmuch as plans proposed in

modern times for conciliating the favor of the populace by sharing among them propertybelonging to the state or to the rich, are designated by the name of agrarianism. thus rome was a city supported, in a greatmeasure, by the fruits of its conquests, that is, in a certain sense, by plunder. it was a vast community most efficientlyand admirably organized for this purpose; and yet it would not be perfectly just todesignate the people simply as a band of robbers. they rendered, in some sense, an equivalentfor what they took, in establishing and

enforcing a certain organization of societythroughout the world, and in preserving a sort of public order and peace. they built cities, they constructedaqueducts and roads; they formed harbors, and protected them by piers and by castles;they protected commerce, and cultivated the arts, and encouraged literature, and enforced a general quiet and peace amongmankind, allowing of no violence or war except what they themselves created. thus they governed the world, and theyfelt, as all governors of mankind always do, fully entitled to supply themselveswith the comforts and conveniences of life,

in consideration of the service which theythus rendered. of course, it was to be expected that theywould sometimes quarrel among themselves about the spoils. ambitious men were always arising, eager toobtain opportunities to make fresh conquests, and to bring home new supplies,and those who were most successful in making the results of their conquests available in adding to the wealth and tothe public enjoyments of the city, would, of course, be most popular with the voters. hence extortion in the provinces, and themost profuse and lavish expenditure in the

city, became the policy which every greatman must pursue to rise to power. caesar entered into this policy with hiswhole soul, founding all his hopes of success upon the favor of the populace. of course, he had many rivals and opponentsamong the patrician ranks, and in the senate, and they often impeded and thwartedhis plans and measures for a time, though he always triumphed in the end. one of the first offices of importance towhich he attained was that of quaestor, as it was called, which office called him awayfrom rome into the province of spain, making him the second in command there.

the officer first in command in theprovince was, in this instance, a praetor. during his absence in spain, caesarreplenished in some degree his exhausted finances, but he soon became very muchdiscontented with so subordinate a position. his discontent was greatly increased by hiscoming unexpectedly, one day, at a city then called hades--the present cadiz--upona statue of alexander, which adorned one of the public edifices there. alexander died when he was only aboutthirty years of age, having before that period made himself master of the world.

caesar was himself now about thirty-fiveyears of age, and it made him very sad to reflect that, though he had lived fiveyears longer than alexander, he had yet accomplished so little. he was thus far only the second in aprovince, while he burned with an insatiable ambition to be the first inrome. the reflection made him so uneasy that heleft his post before his time expired, and went back to rome, forming, on the way,desperate projects for getting power there. his rivals and enemies accused him ofvarious schemes, more or less violent and treasonable in their nature, but how justlyit is not now possible to ascertain.

they alleged that one of his plans was tojoin some of the neighboring colonies, whose inhabitants wished to be admitted tothe freedom of the city, and, making common cause with them, to raise an armed forceand take possession of rome. it was said that, to prevent theaccomplishment of this design, an army which they had raised for the purpose of anexpedition against the cilician pirates was detained from its march, and that caesar, seeing that the government were on theirguard against him, abandoned the plan. they also charged him with having formed,after this, a plan within the city for assassinating the senators in the senatehouse, and then usurping, with his fellow-

conspirators, the supreme power. crassus, who was a man of vast wealth and agreat friend of caesar's, was associated with him in this plot, and was to have beenmade dictator if it had succeeded. but, notwithstanding the brilliant prizewith which caesar attempted to allure crassus to the enterprise, his couragefailed him when the time for action arrived. courage and enterprise, in fact, ought notto be expected of the rich; they are the virtues of poverty. though the senate were thus jealous andsuspicious of caesar, and were charging him

continually with these criminal designs,the people were on his side; and the more he was hated by the great, the more strongly he became intrenched in thepopular favor. they chose him aedile. the aedile had the charge of the publicedifices of the city, and of the games spectacles, and shows which were exhibitedin them. caesar entered with great zeal into thedischarge of the duties of this office. he made arrangements for the entertainmentof the people on the most magnificent scale, and made great additions andimprovements to the public buildings,

constructing porticoes and piazzas around the areas where his gladiatorial shows andthe combats with wild beasts were to be exhibited. he provided gladiators in such numbers, andorganized and arranged them in such a manner, ostensibly for their training, thathis enemies among the nobility pretended to believe that he was intending to use them as an armed force against the government ofthe city. they accordingly made laws limiting andrestricting the number of the gladiators to be employed.

caesar then exhibited his shows on thereduced scale which the new laws required, taking care that the people shouldunderstand to whom the responsibility for this reduction in the scale of theirpleasures belonged. they, of course, murmured against thesenate, and caesar stood higher in their favor than ever. he was getting, however, by these means,very deeply involved in debt; and, in order partly to retrieve his fortunes in thisrespect, he made an attempt to have egypt assigned to him as a province. egypt was then an immensely rich andfertile country.

it had, however, never been a romanprovince. it was an independent kingdom, in alliancewith the romans, and caesar's proposal that it should be assigned to him as a provinceappeared very extraordinary. his pretext was, that the people of egypthad recently deposed and expelled their king, and that, consequently, the romansmight properly take possession of it. the senate, however, resisted this plan,either from jealousy of caesar or from a sense of justice to egypt; and, after aviolent contest, caesar found himself compelled to give up the design. he felt, however, a strong degree ofresentment against the patrician party who

had thus thwarted his designs. accordingly, in order to avenge himselfupon them, he one night replaced certain statues and trophies of marius in thecapitol, which had been taken down by order of sylla when he returned to power. marius, as will be recollected, had beenthe great champion of the popular party, and the enemy of the patricians; and, atthe time of his down-fall, all the memorials of his power and greatness had been every where removed from rome, andamong them these statues and trophies, which had been erected in the capitol incommemoration of some former victories, and

had remained there until sylla's triumph,when they were taken down and destroyed. caesar now ordered new ones to be made, farmore magnificent than before. they were made secretly, and put up in thenight. his office as aedile gave him the necessaryauthority. the next morning, when the people saw thesesplendid monuments of their great favorite restored, the whole city was animated withexcitement and joy. the patricians, on the other hand, werefilled with vexation and rage. "here is a single officer," said they, "whois attempting to restore, by his individual authority, what has been formally abolishedby a decree of the senate.

he is trying to see how much we will bear. if he finds that we will submit to this, hewill attempt bolder measures still." they accordingly commenced a movement tohave the statues and trophies taken down again, but the people rallied in vastnumbers in defense of them. they made the capitol ring with theirshouts of applause; and the senate, finding their power insufficient to cope with sogreat a force, gave up the point, and caesar gained the day. caesar had married another wife after thedeath of cornelia. her name was pompeia, he divorced pompeiaabout this time, under very extraordinary

circumstances. among the other strange religiousceremonies and celebrations which were observed in those days, was one called thecelebration of the mysteries of the good goddess. this celebration was held by females alone,every thing masculine being most carefully excluded. even the pictures of men, if there were anyupon the walls of the house where the assembly was held, were covered. the persons engaged spent the nighttogether in music and dancing and various

secret ceremonies, half pleasure, halfworship, according to the ideas and customs of the time. the mysteries of the good goddess were tobe celebrated one night at caesar's house, he himself having, of course, withdrawn. in the middle of the night, the wholecompany in one of the apartments were thrown into consternation at finding thatone of their number was a man. he had a smooth and youthful-looking face,and was very perfectly disguised in the dress of a female. he proved to be a certain clodius, a verybase and dissolute young man, though of

great wealth and high connections. he had been admitted by a female slave ofpompeia's, whom he had succeeded in bribing.it was suspected that it was with pompeia's concurrence. at any rate, caesar immediately divorcedhis wife. the senate ordered an inquiry into theaffair, and, after the other members of the household had given their testimony, caesarhimself was called upon, but he had nothing to say. he knew nothing about it.

they asked him, then, why he had divorcedpompeia, unless he had some evidence for believing her guilty, he replied, that awife of caesar must not only be without crime, but without suspicion. clodius was a very desperate and lawlesscharacter, and his subsequent history shows, in a striking point of view, thedegree of violence and disorder which reigned in those times. he became involved in a bitter contentionwith another citizen whose name was milo, and each, gaining as many adherents as hecould, at length drew almost the whole city into their quarrel.

whenever they went out, they were attendedwith armed bands, which were continually in danger of coming into collision.the collision at last came, quite a battle was fought, and clodius was killed. this made the difficulty worse than it wasbefore. parties were formed, and violent disputesarose on the question of bringing milo to trial for the alleged murder. he was brought to trial at last, but sogreat was the public excitement, that the consuls for the time surrounded and filledthe whole forum with armed men while the trial was proceeding, to ensure the safetyof the court.

in fact, violence mingled itselfcontinually, in those times, with almost all public proceedings, whenever anyspecial combination of circumstances occurred to awaken unusual excitement. at one time, when caesar was in office, avery dangerous conspiracy was brought to light, which was headed by the notoriouscatiline. it was directed chiefly against the senateand the higher departments of the government; it contemplated, in fact, theirutter destruction, and the establishment of an entirely new government on the ruins ofthe existing constitution. caesar was himself accused of aparticipation in this plot.

when it was discovered, catiline himselffled; some of the other conspirators were, however, arrested, and there was a long andvery excited debate in the senate on the question of their punishment. some were for death. caesar, however, very earnestly opposedthis plan, recommending, instead, the confiscation of the estates of theconspirators, and their imprisonment in some of the distant cities of italy. the dispute grew very warm, caesar urginghis point with great perseverance and determination, and with a degree ofviolence which threatened seriously to

obstruct the proceedings, when a body of armed men, a sort of guard of honorstationed there, gathered around him, and threatened him with their swords.quite a scene of disorder and terror ensued. some of the senators arose hastily and fledfrom the vicinity of caesar's seat to avoid the danger. others, more courageous, or more devoted intheir attachment to him, gathered around him to protect him, as far as they could,by interposing their bodies between his person and the weapons of his assailants.

caesar soon left the senate, and for a longtime would return to it no more. although caesar was all this time, on thewhole, rising in influence and power, there were still fluctuations in his fortune, andthe tide sometimes, for a short period, went strongly against him. he was at one time, when greatly involvedin debt, and embarrassed in all his affairs, a candidate for a very highoffice, that of pontifex maximus, or sovereign pontiff. the office of the pontifex was originallythat of building and keeping custody of the bridges of the city, the name being derivedfrom the latin word pons, which signifies

bridge. to this, however, had afterward been addedthe care of the temples, and finally the regulation and control of the ceremonies ofreligion, so that it came in the end to be an office of the highest dignity and honor. caesar made the most desperate efforts tosecure his election, resorting to such measures, expending such sums, andinvolving himself in debt to such an extreme, that, if he failed, he would beirretrievably ruined. his mother, sympathizing with him in hisanxiety, kissed him when he went away from the house on the morning of the election,and bade hem farewell with tears.

he told her that he should come home thatnight the pontiff, or he should never come home at all.he succeeded in gaining the election. at one time caesar was actually deposedfrom a high office which he held, by a decree of the senate. he determined to disregard this decree, andgo on in the discharge of his office as usual. but the senate, whose ascendency was now,for some reason, once more established, prepared to prevent him by force of arms. caesar, finding that he was not sustained,gave up the contest, put off his robes of

office, and went home.two days afterward a reaction occurred. a mass of the populace came together to hishouse, and offered their assistance to restore his rights and vindicate his honor. caesar, however, contrary to what every onewould have expected of him, exerted his influence to calm and quiet the mob, andthen sent them away, remaining himself in private as before. the senate had been alarmed at the firstoutbreak of the tumult, and a meeting had been suddenly convened to consider whatmeasures to adopt in such a crisis. when, however, they found that caesar hadhimself interposed, and by his own personal

influence had saved the city from thedanger which threatened it, they were so strongly impressed with a sense of his forbearance and generosity, that they sentfor him to come to the senate house, and, after formally expressing their thanks,they canceled their former vote, and restored him to his office again. this change in the action of the senatedoes not, however, necessarily indicate so great a change of individual sentiment asone might at first imagine. there was, undoubtedly, a large minoritywho were averse to his being deposed in the first instance but, being outvoted, thedecree of deposition was passed.

others were, perhaps, more or lessdoubtful. caesar's generous forbearance in refusingthe offered aid of the populace carried over a number of these sufficient to shiftthe majority, and thus the action of the body was reversed. it is in this way that the sudden andapparently total changes in the action of deliberative assemblies which often takeplace, and which would otherwise, in some cases, be almost incredible, are to beexplained. after this, caesar became involved inanother difficulty, in consequence of the appearance of some definite and positiveevidence that he was connected with

catiline in his famous conspiracy. one of the senators said that catilinehimself had informed him that caesar was one of the accomplices of the plot. another witness, named vettius, laid aninformation against caesar before a roman magistrate, and offered to produce caesar'shandwriting in proof of his participation in the conspirator's designs caesar was very much incensed, and his manner ofvindicating himself from these serious charges was as singular as many of hisother deeds. he arrested vettius, and sentenced him topay a heavy fine, and to be imprisoned; and

he contrived also to expose him, in thecourse of the proceedings, to the mob in the forum, who were always ready to espouse caesar's cause, and who, on this occasion,beat vettius so unmercifully, that he barely escaped with his life. the magistrate, too, was thrown into prisonfor having dared to take an information against a superior officer. at last caesar became so much involved indebt, through the boundless extravagance of his expenditures, that something must bedone to replenish his exhausted finances. he had, however, by this time, risen sohigh in official influence and power, that

he succeeded in having spain assigned tohim as his province, and he began to make preparations to proceed to it. his creditors, however, interposed,unwilling to let him go without giving them security. in this dilemma, caesar succeeded in makingan arrangement with crassus, who has already been spoken of as a man ofunbounded wealth and great ambition, but not possessed of any considerable degree ofintellectual power. crassus consented to give the necessarysecurity, with an understanding that caesar was to repay him by exerting his politicalinfluence in his favor.

so soon as this arrangement was made,caesar set off in a sudden and private manner, as if he expected that otherwisesome new difficulty would intervene. he went to spain by land, passing throughswitzerland on the way. he stopped with his attendants one night ata very insignificant village of shepherds' huts among the mountains. struck with the poverty and worthlessnessof all they saw in this wretched hamlet, caesar's friends were wondering whether thejealousy, rivalry, and ambition which reigned among men every where else in the world could find any footing there, whencaesar told them that, for his part, he

should rather choose to be first in such avillage as that than the second at rome. the story has been repeated a thousandtimes, and told to every successive generation now for nearly twenty centuries,as an illustration of the peculiar type and character of the ambition which controlssuch a soul as that of caesar. caesar was very successful in theadministration of his province; that is to say, he returned in a short time withconsiderable military glory, and with money enough to pay all his debts, and famish himwith means for fresh electioneering. he now felt strong enough to aspire to theoffice of consul, which was the highest office of the roman state.

when the line of kings had been deposed,the romans had vested the supreme magistracy in the hands of two consuls, whowere chosen annually in a general election, the formalities of which were all verycarefully arranged. the current of popular opinion was, ofcourse, in caesar's favor, but he had many powerful rivals and enemies among thegreat, who, however, hated and opposed each other as well as him. there was at that time a very bitter feudbetween pompey and crassus, each of them struggling for power against the efforts ofthe other. pompey possessed great influence throughhis splendid abilities and his military

renown.crassus, as has already been stated, was powerful through his wealth. caesar, who had some influence with themboth, now conceived the bold design of reconciling them, and then of availinghimself of their united aid in accomplishing his own particular ends. he succeeded perfectly well in thismanagement. he represented to them that, by contendingagainst each other, they only exhausted their own powers, and strengthened the armsof their common enemies. he proposed to them to unite with oneanother and with him, and thus make common

cause to promote their common interest andadvancement. they willingly acceded to this plan, and atriple league was accordingly formed, in which they each bound themselves topromote, by every means in his power, the political elevation of the others, and not to take any public step or adopt anymeasures without the concurrence of the three. caesar faithfully observed the obligationsof this league so long as he could use his two associates to promote his own ends, andthen he abandoned it. having, however, completed thisarrangement, he was now prepared to push

vigorously his claims to be elected consul. he associated with his own name that oflucceius, who was a man of great wealth, and who agreed to defray the expenses ofthe election for the sake of the honor of being consul with caesar. caesar's enemies, however, knowing thatthey probably could not prevent his election, determined to concentrate theirstrength in the effort to prevent his having the colleague he desired. they made choice, therefore, of a certainbibulus as their candidate. bibulus had always been a politicalopponent of caesar's, and they thought

that, by associating him with caesar in thesupreme magistracy, the pride and ambition of their great adversary might be heldsomewhat in check. they accordingly made a contribution amongthemselves to enable bibulus to expend as much money in bribery as lucceius, and thecanvass went on. it resulted in the election of caesar andbibulus. they entered upon the duties of theiroffice; but caesar, almost entirely disregarding his colleague, began to assumethe whole power, and proposed and carried measure after measure of the most extraordinary character, all aiming at thegratification of the populace.

he was at first opposed violently both bybibulus and by many leading members of the senate, especially by cato, a stern andinflexible patriot, whom neither fear of danger nor hope of reward could move fromwhat he regarded his duty. but caesar was now getting strong enough toput down the opposition which he encountered with out much scruple as to themeans. he ordered cato on one occasion to bearrested in the senate and sent to prison. another influential member of the senaterose and was going out with him. caesar asked him where he was going. he said he was going with cato.he would rather, he said, be with cato in

prison, than in the senate with caesar. caesar treated bibulus also with so muchneglect, and assumed so entirely the whole control of the consular power, to the utterexclusion of his colleague, that bibulus at last, completely discouraged and chagrined, abandoned all pretension to officialauthority, retired to his house, and shut himself up in perfect seclusion, leavingcaesar to his own way. it was customary among the romans, in theirhistorical and narrative writings, to designate the successive years, not by anumerical date as with us, but by the names of the consuls who held office in them.

thus, in the time of caesar's consulship,the phrase would have been, "in the year of caesar and bibulus, consuls," according tothe ordinary usage; but the wags of the city, in order to make sport of the assumptions of caesar and theinsignificance of bibulus, used to say, "in the year of julius and caesar, consuls,"rejecting the name of bibulus altogether, and taking the two names of caesar to makeout the necessary duality. history of julius caesar by jacob abbottchapter iv. the conquest of gaul. in attaining to the consulship, caesar hadreached the highest point of elevation

which it was possible to reach as a merecitizen of rome. his ambition was, however, of course, notsatisfied. the only way to acquire higher distinctionand to rise to higher power was to enter upon a career of foreign conquest. caesar therefore aspired now to be asoldier. he accordingly obtained the command of anarmy, and entered upon a course of military campaigns in the heart of europe, which hecontinued for eight years. these eight years constitute one of themost important and strongly-marked periods of his life.

he was triumphantly successful in hismilitary career, and he made, accordingly, a vast accession to his celebrity andpower, in his own day, by the results of his campaigns. he also wrote, himself, an account of hisadventures during this period, in which the events are recorded in so lucid and in soeloquent a manner, that the narrations have continued to be read by every successive generation of scholars down to the presentday, and they have had a great influence in extending and perpetuating his fame. the principal scenes of the exploits whichcaesar performed during the period of this

his first great military career, were thenorth of italy, switzerland, france, germany, and england, a great tract of country, nearly all of which he overran andconquered. a large portion of this territory wascalled gaul in those days; the part on the italian side of the alps being namedcisalpine gaul, while that which lay beyond was designated as transalpine. transalpine gaul was substantially what isnow france. there was a part of transalpine gaul whichhad been already conquered and reduced to a roman province.

it was called the province then, and hasretained the name, with a slight change in orthography, to the present day.it is now known as provence. the countries which caesar went to invadewere occupied by various nations and tribes, many of which were well organizedand war-like, and some of them were considerably civilized and wealthy. they had extended tracts of cultivatedland, the slopes of the hills and the mountain sides being formed into greenpasturages, which were covered with flocks of goats, and sheep, and herds of cattle, while the smoother and more level tractswere adorned with smiling vineyards and

broadly-extended fields of waving grain.they had cities, forts, ships, and armies. their manners and customs would beconsidered somewhat rude by modern nations, and some of their usages of war were halfbarbarian. for example, in one of the nations whichcaesar encountered, he found, as he says in his narrative, a corps of cavalry, as aconstituent part of the army, in which, to every horse, there were two men, one the rider, and the other a sort of foot soldierand attendant. if the battle went against them, and thesquadron were put to their speed in a retreat, these footmen would cling to themanes-of the horses, and then, half

running, half flying, they would be borne along over the field, thus keeping alwaysat the side of their comrades, and escaping with them to a place of safety. but, although the romans were inclined toconsider these nations as only half civilized, still there would be greatglory, as caesar thought, in subduing them, and probably great treasure would be secured in the conquest, both by theplunder and confiscation of governmental property, and by the tribute which would becollected in taxes from the people of the countries subdued.

caesar accordingly placed himself at thehead of an army of three roman legions, which he contrived, by means of a greatdeal of political maneuvering and management, to have raised and placed underhis command. one of these legions, which was called thetenth legion, was his favorite corps, on account of the bravery and hardihood whichthey often displayed. at the head of these legions, caesar setout for gaul. he was at this time not far from fortyyears of age. caesar had no difficulty in findingpretexts for making war upon any of these various nations that he might desire tosubdue.

they were, of course, frequently at warwith each other, and there were at all times standing topics of controversy andunsettled disputes among them. caesar had, therefore, only to draw near tothe scene of contention, and then to take sides with one party or the other, itmattered little with which, for the affair almost always resulted, in the end, in hismaking himself master of both. the manner, however, in which this sort ofoperation was performed, can best be illustrated by an example, and we will takefor the purpose the case of ariovistus. ariovistus was a german king. he had been nominally a sort of ally of theromans.

he had extended his conquests across therhine into gaul, and he held some nations there as his tributaries. among these, the aeduans were a prominentparty, and, to simplify the account, we will take their name as the representativeof all who were concerned. when caesar came into the region of theaeduans, he entered into some negotiations with them, in which they, as he alleges,asked his assistance to enable them to throw off the dominion of their germanenemy. it is probable, in fact, that there wassome proposition of this kind from them, for caesar had abundant means of inducingthem to make it, if he was disposed, and

the receiving of such a communication furnished the most obvious and plausiblepretext to authorize and justify his interposition. caesar accordingly sent a messenger acrossthe rhine to ariovistus, saying that he wished to have an interview with him onbusiness of importance, and asking him to name a time which would be convenient to him for the interview, and also to appointsome place in gaul where he would attend. to this ariovistus replied, that if he had,himself, any business with caesar, he would have waited upon him to propose it; and, inthe same manner, if caesar wished to see

him, he must come into his own dominions. he said that it would not be safe for himto come into gaul without an army, and that it was not convenient for him to raise andequip an army for such a purpose at that time. caesar sent again to ariovistus to say,that since he was so unmindful of his obligations to the roman people as torefuse an interview with him on business of common interest, he would state theparticulars that he required of him. the aeduans, he said, were now his allies,and under his protection; and ariovistus must send back the hostages which he heldfrom them, and bind himself henceforth not

to send any more troops across the rhine, nor make war upon the aeduans, or injurethem in any way. if he complied with these terms, all wouldbe well. if he did not, caesar said that he shouldnot himself disregard the just complaints of his allies.ariovistus had no fear of caesar. caesar had, in fact, thus far, not begun toacquire the military renown to which he afterward attained ariovistus had,therefore, no particular cause to dread his he sent him back word that he did notunderstand why caesar should interfere between him and his conquered province.

"the aeduans," said he, "tried the fortuneof war with me, and were overcome; and they must abide the issue. the romans manage their conquered provincesas they judge proper, without holding themselves accountable to any one.i shall do the same with mine. all that i can say is, that so long as theaeduans submit peaceably to my authority, and pay their tribute, i shall not molestthem; as to your threat that you shall not disregard their complaints, you must know that no one has ever made war upon me butto his own destruction, and, if you wish to see how it will turn out in your case, youmay make the experiment whenever you

please." both parties immediately prepared for war. ariovistus, instead of waiting to beattacked, assembled his army, crossed the rhine, and advanced into the territoriesfrom which caesar had undertaken to exclude him. as caesar, however, began to make hisarrangements for putting his army in motion to meet his approaching enemy, there beganto circulate throughout the camp such extraordinary stories of the terrible strength and courage of the german soldieryas to produce a very general panic.

so great, at length, became the anxiety andalarm, that even the officers were wholly dejected and discouraged; and as for themen, they were on the very eve of mutiny. when caesar understood this state ofthings, he called an assembly of the troops, and made an address to them. he told them that he was astonished tolearn to what an extent an unworthy despondency and fear had taken possessionof their minds, and how little confidence they reposed in him, their general. and then, after some further remarks aboutthe duty of a soldier to be ready to go wherever his commander leads him, andpresenting also some considerations in

respect to the german troops with which they were going to contend, in order toshow them that they had no cause to fear, he ended by saying that he had not beenfully decided as to the time of marching, but that now he had concluded to give orders for setting out the next morning atthree o'clock, that he might learn, as soon as possible, who were too cowardly tofollow him. he would go himself, he said, if he wasattended by the tenth legion alone he was sure that they would not shrink from anyundertaking in which he led the way. the soldiers, moved partly by shame, partlyby the decisive and commanding tone which

their general assumed, and partly reassuredby the courage and confidence which he seemed to feel, laid aside their fears, and vied with each other henceforth in energyand ardor. the armies approached each other. ariovistus sent to caesar, saying that now,if he wished it, he was ready for an interview. caesar acceded to the suggestion, and thearrangements for a conference were made, each party, as usual in such cases, takingevery precaution to guard against the treachery of the other.

between the two camps there was a risingground, in the middle of an open plain, where it was decided that the conferenceshould be held. ariovistus proposed that neither partyshould bring any foot soldiers to the place of meeting, but cavalry alone; and thatthese bodies of cavalry, brought by the respective generals, should remain at the foot of the eminence on either side, whilecaesar and ariovistus themselves, attended each by only ten followers on horseback,should ascend it. this plan was acceded to by caesar, and along conference was held in this way between the two generals, as they sat upontheir horses, on the summit of the hill.

the two generals, in their discussion, onlyrepeated in substance what they had said in their embassages before, and made noprogress toward coming to an understanding. at length caesar closed the conference andwithdrew. some days afterward ariovistus sent arequest to caesar, asking that he would appoint another interview, or else that hewould depute one of his officers to proceed to ariovistus's camp and receive a communication which he wished to make tohim. caesar concluded not to grant anotherinterview, and he did not think it prudent to send any one of his principal officersas an embassador, for fear that he might be

treacherously seized and held as a hostage. he accordingly sent an ordinary messenger,accompanied by one or two men. these men were all seized and put in ironsas soon as they reached the camp of ariovistus, and caesar now prepared inearnest for giving his enemy battle. he proved himself as skillful and efficientin arranging and managing the combat as he had been sagacious and adroit in thenegotiations which preceded it. several days were spent in maneuvers andmovements, by which each party endeavored to gain some advantage over the other inrespect to their position in the approaching struggle.

when at length the combat came, caesar andhis legions were entirely and triumphantly successful.the germans were put totally to flight. their baggage and stores were all seized,and the troops themselves fled in dismay by all the roads which led back to the rhine;and there those who succeeded in escaping death from the romans, who pursued them all the way, embarked in boats and upon rafts,and returned to their homes. ariovistus himself found a small boat, inwhich, with one or two followers, he succeeded in getting across the stream. as caesar, at the head of a body of histroops, was pursuing the enemy in this

their flight, he overtook one party who hada prisoner with them confined by iron chains fastened to his limbs, and whom theywere hurrying rapidly along. this prisoner proved to be the messengerthat caesar had sent to ariovistus's camp, and whom he had, as caesar alleges,treacherously detained. of course, he was overjoyed to berecaptured and set at liberty. the man said that three times they haddrawn lots to see whether they should burn him alive then, or reserve the pleasure fora future occasion, and that every time the lot had resulted in his favor. the consequence of this victory was, thatcaesar's authority was established

triumphantly over all that part of gaulwhich he had thus freed from ariovistus's sway. other parts of the country, too, werepervaded by the fame of his exploits, and the people every where began to considerwhat action it would be incumbent on them to take, in respect to the new military power which had appeared so suddenly amongthem. some nations determined to submit withoutresistance, and to seek the conqueror's alliance and protection. others, more bold, or more confident oftheir strength, began to form combinations

and to arrange plans for resisting him.but, whatever they did, the result in the end was the same. caesar's ascendency was every where andalways gaining ground. of course, it is impossible in the compassof a single chapter, which is all that can be devoted to the subject in this volume,to give any regular narrative of the events of the eight years of caesar's militarycareer in gaul. marches, negotiations, battles, andvictories mingled with and followed each other in a long succession, the particularsof which it would require a volume to detail, every thing resulting most

successfully for the increase of caesar'spower and the extension of his fame. caesar gives, in his narrative, veryextraordinary accounts of the customs and modes of life of some of the people that heencountered. there was one country, for example, inwhich all the lands were common, and the whole structure of society was based on theplan of forming the community into one great martial band. the nation was divided into a hundredcantons, each containing two thousand men capable of bearing arms. if these were all mustered into servicetogether, they would form, of course, an

army of two hundred thousand men. it was customary, however, to organize onlyone half of them into an army, while the rest remained at home to till the groundand tend the flocks and herds. these two great divisions interchangedtheir work every year, the soldiers becoming husbandmen, and the husbandmensoldiers. thus they all became equally inured to thehardships and dangers of the camp, and to the more continuous but safer labors ofagricultural toil. their fields were devoted to pasturage morethan to tillage, for flocks and herds could be driven from place to place, and thusmore easily preserved from the depredations

of enemies than fields of grain. the children grew up almost perfectly wildfrom infancy, and hardened themselves by bathing in cold streams, wearing verylittle clothing, and making long hunting excursions among the mountains. the people had abundance of excellenthorses, which the young men were accustomed, from their earliest years, toride without saddle or bridle, the horses being trained to obey implicitly everycommand. so admirably disciplined were they, thatsometimes, in battle, the mounted men would leap from their horses and advance as footsoldiers to aid the other infantry, leaving

the horses to stand until they returned. the horses would not move from the spot;the men, when the object for which they had dismounted was accomplished, would comeback, spring to their seats again, and once more become a squadron of cavalry. although caesar was very energetic anddecided in the government of his army, he was extremely popular with his soldiers inall these campaigns. he exposed his men, of course, to a greatmany privations and hardships, but then he evinced, in many cases, such a willingnessto bear his share of them, that the men were very little inclined to complain.

he moved at the head of the column when histroops were advancing on a march, generally on horseback, but often on foot; andsuetonius says that he used to go bareheaded on such occasions, whatever was the state of the weather, though it isdifficult to see what the motive of this apparently needless exposure could be,unless it was for effect, on some special or unusual occasion. caesar would ford or swim rivers with hismen whenever there was no other mode of transit, sometimes supported, it was said,by bags inflated with air, and placed under his arms.

at one time he built a bridge across therhine, to enable his army to cross that river. this bridge was built with piles drivendown into the sand, which supported a flooring of timbers. caesar, considering it quite an exploitthus to bridge the rhine, wrote a minute account of the manner in which the work wasconstructed, and the description is almost exactly in accordance with the principlesand usages of modern carpentry. after the countries which were the scene ofthese conquests were pretty well subdued, caesar established on some of the greatroutes of travel a system of posts, that

is, he stationed supplies of horses at intervals of from ten to twenty miles alongthe way, so that he himself, or the officers of his army, or any couriers whorehe might have occasion to send with dispatches could travel with great speed byfinding a fresh horse ready at every stage. by this means he sometimes traveled himselfa hundred miles in a day. this system, thus adopted for militarypurposes in caesar's time, has been continued in almost all countries of europeto the present age, and is applied to traveling in carriages as well as onhorseback. a family party purchase a carriage, andarranging within it all the comforts and

conveniences which they will require on thejourney, they set out, taking these post horses, fresh at each village, to draw themto the next. thus they can go at any rate of speed whichthey desire, instead of being limited in their movements by the powers of enduranceof one set of animals, as they would be compelled to be if they were to travel withtheir own. this plan has, for some reason, never beenintroduced into america, and it is now probable that it never will be, as therailway system will doubtless supersede it. one of the most remarkable of theenterprises which caesar undertook during the period of these campaigns was hisexcursion into great britain.

the real motive of this expedition wasprobably a love of romantic adventure, and a desire to secure for himself at rome theglory of having penetrated into remote regions which roman armies had neverreached before. the pretext, however, which he made tojustify his invading the territories of the britons was, that the people of the islandwere accustomed to come across the channel and aid the gauls in their wars. in forming his arrangements for going intoengland, the first thing was, to obtain all the information which was accessible ingaul in respect to the country. there were, in those days, great numbers oftraveling merchants, who went from one

nation to another to purchase and sell,taking with them such goods as were most easy of transportation. these merchants, of course, were generallypossessed of a great deal of information in respect to the countries which they hadvisited, and caesar called together as many of them as he could find, when he had reached the northern shores of france, toinquire about the modes of crossing the channel, the harbors on the english side,the geographical conformation of the country, and the military resources of thepeople. he found, however, that the merchants couldgive him very little information.

they knew that britain was an island, butthey did not know its extent or its boundaries; and they could tell him verylittle of the character or customs of the people. they said that they had only beenaccustomed to land upon the southern shore, and to transact all their business there,without penetrating at all into the interior of the country. caesar then, who, though undaunted and boldin emergencies requiring prompt and decisive action, was extremely cautious andwary at all other times, fitted up a single ship, and, putting one of his officers on

board with a proper crew, directed him tocross the channel to the english coast, and then to cruise along the land for somemiles in each direction, to observe where were the best harbors and places for landing, and to examine generally theappearance of the shore. this vessel was a galley, manned withnumerous oarsmen, well selected and strong, so that it could retreat with great speedfrom any sudden appearance of danger the name of the officer who had the command ofit was volusenus. volusenus set sail, the army watching hisvessel with great interest as it moved slowly away from the shore.

he was gone five days, and then returned,bringing caesar an account of his discoveries. in the mean time, caesar had collected alarge number of sailing vessels from the whole line of the french shore, by means ofwhich he proposed to transport his army across the channel. he had two legions to take into britain,the remainder of his forces having been stationed as garrisons in various parts ofgaul. it was necessary, too, to leave aconsiderable force at his post of debarkation, in order to secure a saferetreat in case of any disaster on the

british side. the number of transport ships provided forthe foot soldiers which were to be taken over was eighty. there were, besides these, eighteen more,which were appointed to convey a squadron of horse. this cavalry force was to embark at aseparate port, about eighty miles distant from the one from which the infantry wereto sail. at length a suitable day for theembarkation arrived; the troops were put on board the ships, and orders were given tosail.

the day could not be fixed beforehand, asthe time for attempting to make the passage must necessarily depend upon the state ofthe wind and weather. accordingly, when the favorable opportunityarrived, and the main body of the army began to embark it took some time to sendthe orders to the port where the cavalry had rendezvoused; and there were, besides, other causes of delay which occurred todetain this corps, so that it turned out, as we shall presently see, that the footsoldiers had to act alone in the first attempt at landing on the british shore. it was one o'clock in the morning when thefleet set sail.

the britons had, in the mean time, obtainedintelligence of caesar's threatened invasion, and they had assembled in greatforce, with troops, and horsemen, and carriages of war, and were all ready toguard the shore. the coast, at the point where caesar wasapproaching, consists of a line of chalky cliffs, with valley-like openings here andthere between them, communicating with the shore, and sometimes narrow beaches below. when the roman fleet approached the land,caesar found the cliffs every where lined with troops of britons, and everyaccessible point below carefully guarded. it was now about ten o'clock in themorning, and caesar, finding the prospect

so unfavorable in respect to thepracticability of effecting a landing here, brought his fleet to anchor near the shore, but far enough from it to be safe from themissiles of the enemy. here he remained for several hours, to givetime for all the vessels to join him. some of them had been delayed in theembarkation, or had made slower progress than the rest in crossing the channel. he called a council, too, of the superiorofficers of the army on board his own galley, and explained to them the planwhich he now adopted for the landing. about three o'clock in the afternoon hesent these officers back to their

respective ships, and gave orders to makesail along the shore. the anchors were raised and the fleet movedon, borne by the united impulse of the wind and the tide. the britons, perceiving this movement, putthemselves in motion on the land, following the motions of the fleet so as to be readyto meet their enemy wherever they might ultimately undertake to land. their horsemen and carriages went on inadvance, and the foot soldiers followed, all pressing eagerly forward to keep upwith the motion of the fleet, and to prevent caesar's army from having time to

land before they should arrive at the spotand be ready to oppose them. the fleet moved on until, at length, aftersailing about eight miles, they came to a part of the coast where there was a tractof comparatively level ground, which seemed to be easily accessible from the shore. here caesar determined to attempt to land;and drawing up his vessel, accordingly, as near as possible to the beach, he orderedthe men to leap over into the water, with their weapons in their hands. the britons were all here to oppose them,and a dreadful struggle ensued, the combatants dyeing the waters with theirblood as they fought, half submerged in the

surf which rolled in upon the sand. some galleys rowed up at the same time nearto the shore, and the men on board of them attacked the britons from the decks, by thedarts and arrows which they shot to the land. caesar at last prevailed; the britons weredriven away, and the roman army established themselves in quiet possession of theshore. caesar had afterward a great variety ofadventures, and many narrow escapes from imminent dangers in britain, and, though hegained considerable glory by thus penetrating into such remote and unknown

regions, there was very little else to beacquired. the glory, however, was itself of greatvalue to caesar. during the whole period of his campaigns ingaul, rome and all italy in fact, had been filled with the fame of his exploits, andthe expedition into britain added not a little to his renown. the populace of the city were greatlygratified to hear of the continued success of their former favorite. they decreed to him triumph after triumph,and were prepared to welcome him, whenever he should return, with greater honors andmore extended and higher powers than he had

ever enjoyed before. caesar's exploits in these campaigns were,in fact, in a military point of view, of the most magnificent character. plutarch, in summing up the results ofthem, says that he took eight hundred cities, conquered three hundred nations,fought pitched battles at separate times with three millions of men, took one million of prisoners, and killed anothermillion on the field. what a vast work of destruction was thisfor a man to spend eight years of his life in performing upon his fellow-creatures,merely to gratify his insane love of

dominion. history of julius caesar by jacob abbottchapter v. pompey. while caesar had thus been rising to sohigh an elevation, there was another roman general who had been, for nearly the sameperiod, engaged, in various other quarters of the world, in acquiring, by very similarmeans, an almost equal renown. this general was pompey.he became, in the end, caesar's great and formidable rival. in order that the reader may understandclearly the nature of the great contest

which sprung up at last between theseheroes, we must now go back and relate some of the particulars of pompey's individual history down to the time of the completionof caesar's conquests in gaul. pompey was a few years older than caesar,having been born in 106 b.c. his father was a roman general, and theyoung pompey was brought up in camp. he was a young man of very handsome figureand countenance, and of very agreeable manners. his hair curled slightly over his forehead,and he had a dark and intelligent eye, full of vivacity and meaning.

there was, besides, in the expression ofhis face, and in his air and address, a certain indescribable charm, whichprepossessed every one strongly in his favor, and gave him, from his earliest years, a great personal ascendency over allwho knew him. notwithstanding this popularity, however,pompey did not escape, even in very early life, incurring his share of the dangerswhich seemed to environ the path of every public man in those distracted times. it will be recollected that, in thecontests between marius and sylla, caesar had joined the marian faction.pompey's father, on the other hand, had

connected himself with that of sylla. at one time, in the midst of these wars,when pompey was very young, a conspiracy was formed to assassinate his father byburning him in his tent, and pompey's comrade, named terentius, who slept in the same tent with him, had been bribed to killpompey himself at the same time, by stabbing him in his bed. pompey contrived to discover this plan,but, instead of being at all discomposed by it, he made arrangements for a guard abouthis father's tent and then went to supper as usual with terentius, conversing with

him all the time in even a more free andfriendly manner than usual. that night he arranged his bed so as tomake it appear as if he was in it, and then stole away. when the appointed hour arrived, terentiuscame into the tent, and, approaching the couch where he supposed pompey was lyingasleep, stabbed it again and again, piercing the coverlets in many places, but doing no harm, of course, to his intendedvictim. in the course of the wars between mariusand sylla, pompey passed through a great variety of scenes, and met with manyextraordinary adventures and narrow

escapes, which, however, can not be hereparticularly detailed. his father, who was as much hated by hissoldiers as the son was beloved, was at last, one day, struck by lightning in histent. the soldiers were inspired with such ahatred for his memory, in consequence, probably, of the cruelties and oppressionswhich they had suffered from him, that they would not allow his body to be honored withthe ordinary funeral obsequies. they pulled it off from the bier on whichit was to have been borne to the funeral pile, and dragged it ignominiously away. pompey's father was accused, too, after hisdeath, of having converted some public

moneys which had been committed to hischarge to his own use, and pompey appeared in the roman forum as an advocate to defend him from the charge and to vindicate hismemory. he was very successful in this defense. all who heard it were, in the firstinstance, very deeply interested in favor of the speaker, on account of his extremeyouth and his personal beauty; and, as he proceeded with his plea, he argued with so much eloquence and power as to winuniversal applause. one of the chief officers of the governmentin the city was so much pleased with his

appearance, and with the promise of futuregreatness which the circumstances indicated, that he offered him his daughterin marriage. pompey accepted the offer, and married thelady. her name was antistia. pompey rose rapidly to higher and higherdegrees of distinction, until he obtained the command of an army, which he had, infact, in a great measure raised and organized himself, and he fought at the head of it with great energy and successagainst the enemies of sylla. at length he was hemmed in on the easterncoast of italy by three separate armies,

which were gradually advancing against him,with a certainty, as they thought, of effecting his destruction. sylla, hearing of pompey's danger, madegreat efforts to march to his rescue. before he reached the place, however,pompey had met and defeated one after another of the armies of his enemies, sothat, when sylla approached, pompey marched out to meet him with his army drawn up in magnificent array, trumpets sounding andbanners flying, and with large bodies of disarmed troops, the prisoners that he hadtaken, in the rear. sylla was struck with surprise andadmiration; and when pompey saluted him

with the title of imperator, which was thehighest title known to the roman constitution, and the one which sylla's lofty rank and unbounded power mightproperly claim, sylla returned the compliment by conferring this great mark ofdistinction on him. pompey proceeded to rome, and the fame ofhis exploits, the singular fascination of his person and manners, and the great favorwith sylla that he enjoyed, raised him to a high degree of distinction. he was not, however, elated with the prideand vanity which so young a man would be naturally expected to exhibit under suchcircumstances.

he was, on the contrary, modest andunassuming, and he acted in all respects in such a manner as to gain the approbationand the kind regard of all who knew him, as well as to excite their applause. there was an old general at this time ingaul--for all these events took place long before the time of caesar's campaigns inthat country, and, in fact, before the commencement of his successful career in rome--whose name was metellus, and who,either on account of his advancing age, or for some other reason, was very inefficientand unsuccessful in his government. sylla proposed to supersede him by sendingpompey to take his place.

pompey replied that it was not right totake the command from a man who was so much his superior in age and character, butthat, if metellus wished for his assistance in the management of his command, he would proceed to gaul and render him everyservice in his power. when this answer was reported to metellus,he wrote to pompey to come. pompey accordingly went to gaul, where heobtained new victories, and gained new and higher honors than before. these, and various anecdotes which theancient historians relate, would lead us to form very favorable ideas of pompey'scharacter.

some other circumstances, however, whichoccurred, seem to furnish different indications. for example, on his return to rome, sometime after the events above related, sylla, whose estimation of pompey's character andof the importance of his services seemed continually to increase, wished to connecthim with his own family by marriage. he accordingly proposed that pompey shoulddivorce his wife antistia, and marry aemilia, the daughter-in-law of sylla. aemilia was already the wife of anotherman, from whom she would have to be taken away to make her the wife of pompey.

this, however, does not seem to have beenthought a very serious difficulty in the way of the arrangement.pompey's wife was put away, and the wife of another man taken in her place. such a deed was a gross violation notmerely of revealed and written law, but of those universal instincts of right andwrong which are implanted indelibly in all human hearts. it ended, as might have been expected, mostdisastrously. antistia was plunged, of course, into thedeepest distress. her father had recently lost his life onaccount of his supposed attachment to

pompey. her mother killed herself in the anguishand despair produced by the misfortunes of her family; and aemilia the new wife, diedsuddenly, on the occasion of the birth of a child, a very short time after her marriagewith pompey. these domestic troubles did not, however,interpose any serious obstacle to pompey's progress in his career of greatness andglory. sylla sent him on one great enterpriseafter another, in all of which pompey acquitted himself in an admirable manner.among his other campaigns, he served for some time in africa with great success.

he returned in due time from thisexpedition, loaded with military honors. his soldiers had become so much attached tohim that there was almost a mutiny in the army when he was ordered home. they were determined to submit to noauthority but that of pompey. pompey at length succeeded, by greatefforts, in subduing this spirit, and bringing back the army to their duty. a false account of the affair, however,went to rome. it was reported to sylla that there was arevolt in the army of africa, headed by pompey himself, who was determined not toresign his command.

sylla was at first very indignant that hisauthority should be despised and his power braved, as he expressed it, by "such aboy;" for pompey was still, at this time, very young. when, however, he learned the truth, heconceived a higher admiration for the young general than ever. he went out to meet him as he approachedthe city, and, in accosting him, he called him pompey the great.pompey has continued to bear the title thus given him to the present day. pompey began, it seems, now to experience,in some degree, the usual effects produced

upon the human heart by celebrity andpraise. he demanded a triumph. a triumph was a great and splendidceremony, by which victorious generals, who were of advanced age and high civil ormilitary rank, were received into the city when returning from any specially gloriouscampaign. there was a grand procession formed onthese occasions, in which various emblems and insignia, and trophies of victory, andcaptives taken by the conqueror, were displayed. this great procession entered the city withbands of music accompanying it, and flags

and banners flying, passing under triumphalarches erected along the way. triumphs were usually decreed by a vote ofthe senate, in cases where they were deserved; but, in this case, sylla's poweras dictator was supreme, and pompey's demand for a triumph seems to have beenaddressed accordingly to him. sylla refused it. pompey's performances in the africancampaign had been, he admitted, very creditable to him, but he had neither theage nor the rank to justify the granting him a triumph. to bestow such an honor upon one so youngand in such a station, would only bring the

honor itself, he said, into disrepute, anddegrade, also, his dictatorship for suffering it. to this pompey replied, speaking, however,in an under tone to those around him in the assembly, that sylla need not fear that thetriumph would be unpopular, for people were much more disposed to worship a rising thana setting sun. sylla did not hear this remark, but,perceiving by the countenances of the by- standers that pompey had said somethingwhich seemed to please them, he asked what it was. when the remark was repeated to him, heseemed pleased himself with its justness or

with its wit, and said, "let him have histriumph." the arrangements were accordingly madepompey ordering every thing necessary to be prepared for a most magnificent procession. he learned that some persons in the city,envious at his early renown, were displeased with his triumph; this onlyawakened in him a determination to make it still more splendid and imposing. he had brought some elephants with him fromafrica, and he formed a plan for having the car in which he was to ride in theprocession drawn by four of these huge beasts as it entered the city; but, on

measuring the gate, it was found not wideenough to admit such a team, and the plan was accordingly abandoned. the conqueror's car was drawn by horses inthe usual manner, and the elephants followed singly, with the other trophies,to grace the train. pompey remained some time after this inrome, sustaining from time to time various offices of dignity and honor. his services were often called for to pleadcauses in the forum, and he performed this duty, whenever he undertook it, with greatsuccess. he, however, seemed generally inclined toretire somewhat from intimate intercourse

with the mass of the community, knowingvery well that if he was engaged often in the discussion of common questions with ordinary men, he should soon descend inpublic estimation from the high position to which his military renown had raised him. he accordingly accustomed himself to appearbut little in public, and, when he did so appear, he was generally accompanied by alarge retinue of armed attendants, at the head of which he moved about the city in great state, more like a victorious generalin a conquered province than like a peaceful citizen exercising ordinaryofficial functions in a community governed

by law. this was a very sagacious course, so far asconcerned the attainment of the great objects of future ambition. pompey knew very well that occasions wouldprobably arise in which he could act far more effectually for the promotion of hisown greatness and fame than by mingling in the ordinary municipal contests of thecity. at length, in fact, an occasion came. in the year b.c. 67, which was about thetime that caesar commenced his successful career in rising to public office in rome,as is described in the third chapter of

this volume, the cilician pirates, of whose desperate character and bold exploitssomething has already been said, had become so powerful, and were increasing so rapidlyin the extent of their depredations, that the roman people felt compelled to adopt some very vigorous measures for suppressingthem. the pirates had increased in numbers duringthe wars between marius and sylla in a very alarming degree. they had built, equipped, and organizedwhole fleets. they had various fortresses, arsenals,ports, and watch-towers all along the

coasts of the mediterranean. they had also extensive warehouses, builtin secure and secluded places, where they stored their plunder. their fleets were well manned, and providedwith skillful pilots, and with ample supplies of every kind; and they were sowell constructed, both for speed and safety, that no other ships could be madeto surpass them. many of them, too, were adorned anddecorated in the most sumptuous manner, with gilded sterns, purple awnings, andsilver-mounted oars. the number of their galleys was said to bea thousand.

with this force they made themselves almostcomplete masters of the sea. they attacked not only separate ships, butwhole fleets of merchantmen sailing under convoy; and they increased the difficultyand expense of bringing grain to rome so much, by intercepting the supplies, as very materially to enhance the price and tothreaten a scarcity. they made themselves masters of manyislands and of various maritime towns along the coast, until they had four hundredports and cities in their possession. in fact, they had gone so far towardforming themselves into a regular maritime power, under a systematic and legitimategovernment, that very respectable young men

from other countries began to enter their service, as one opening honorable avenuesto wealth and fame. under these circumstances, it was obviousthat something decisive must be done. a friend of pompey's brought forward a planfor commissioning some one, he did not say whom, but every one understood that pompeywas intended, to be sent forth against the pirates, with extraordinary powers, such as should be amply sufficient to enable him tobring their dominion to an end. he was to have supreme command upon thesea, and also upon the land for fifty miles from the shore.

he was, moreover, to be empowered to raiseas large a force, both of ships and men, as he should think required, and to draw fromthe treasury whatever funds were necessary to defray the enormous expenses which sovast an undertaking would involve. if the law should pass creating thisoffice, and a person be designated to fill it, it is plain that such a commander wouldbe clothed with enormous powers; but then he would incur, on the other hand, a vast and commensurate responsibility, as theroman people would hold him rigidly accountable for the full and perfectaccomplishment of the work he under took, after they had thus surrendered every

possible power necessary to accomplish itso unconditionally into his hands. there was a great deal of maneuvering,management, and debate on the one hand to effect the passage of this law, and, on theother, to defeat it. caesar, who, though not so prominent yet aspompey, was now rising rapidly to influence and power, was in favor of the measure,because, as is said, he perceived that the people were pleased with it. it was at length adopted.pompey was then designated to fill the office which the law created.he accepted the trust, and began to prepare for the vast undertaking.

the price of grain fell immediately inrome, as soon as the appointment of pompey was made known, as the merchants, who hadlarge supplies in the granaries there, were now eager to sell, even at a reduction, feeling confident that pompey's measureswould result in bringing in abundant supplies. the people, surprised at this suddenrelaxation of the pressure of their burdens, said that the very name of pompeyhad put an end to the war. they were not mistaken in theiranticipations of pompey's success. he freed the mediterranean from pirates inthree months, by one systematic and simple

operation, which affords one of the moststriking examples of the power of united and organized effort, planned and conducted by one single master mind, which thehistory of ancient or modern times has recorded.the manner in which this work was effected was this: pompey raised and equipped a vast number ofgalleys, and divided them into separate fleets, putting each one under the commandof a lieutenant. he then divided the mediterranean sea intothirteen districts, and appointed a lieutenant and his fleet for each one ofthem as a guard.

after sending these detachments forth totheir respective stations, he set out from the city himself to take charge of theoperations which he was to conduct in person. the people followed him, as he went to theplace where he was to embark, in great crowds, and with long and loudacclamations. beginning at the straits of gibraltar,pompey cruised with a powerful fleet toward the east, driving the pirates before him,the lieutenants, who were stationed along the coast being on the alert to prevent them from finding any places of retreat orrefuge.

some of the pirates' ships were surroundedand taken. others fled, and were followed by pompey'sships until they had passed beyond the coasts of sicily, and the seas between theitalian and african shores. the communication was now open again to thegrain-growing countries south of rome, and large supplies of food were immediatelypoured into the city. the whole population was, of course, filledwith exultation and joy at receiving such welcome proofs that pompey was successfullyaccomplishing the work they had assigned the italian peninsula and the island ofsicily, which are, in fact, a projection from the northern shores of themediterranean, with a salient angle of the

coast nearly opposite to them on the african side, form a sort of strait whichdivides this great sea into two separate bodies of water, and the pirates were nowdriven entirely out of the western division. pompey sent his principal fleet after them,with orders to pass around the island of sicily and the south era part of italy tobrundusium, which was the great port on the western side of italy. he himself was to cross the peninsula byland, taking rome in his way, and afterward to join the fleet at brundusium.

the pirates, in the mean time, so far asthey had escaped pompey's cruisers, had retreated to the seas in the neighborhoodof cilicia, and were concentrating their forces there in preparation for the finalstruggle. pompey was received at rome with the utmostenthusiasm. the people came out in throngs to meet himas he approached the city, and welcomed him with loud acclamations.he did not, however, remain in the city to enjoy these honors. he procured, as soon as possible, what wasnecessary for the further prosecution of his work, and went on.he found his fleet at brundusium, and,

immediately embarking, he put to sea. pompey went on to the completion of hiswork with the same vigor and decision which he had displayed in the commencement of it. some of the pirates, finding themselveshemmed in within narrower and narrower limits, gave up the contest, and came andsurrendered. pompey, instead of punishing them severelyfor their crimes, treated them, and their wives and children, who fell likewise intohis power, with great humanity. this induced many others to follow theirexample, so that the number that remained resisting to the end was greatly reduced.

there were, however, after all thesesubmissions, a body of stern and indomitable desperadoes left, who wereincapable of yielding. these retreated, with all the forces whichthey could retain, to their strong-holds on the silician shores, sending their wivesand children back to still securer retreats among the fastnesses of the mountains. pompey followed them, hemming them in withthe squadrons of armed galleys which he brought up around them, thus cutting offfrom them all possibility of escape. here, at length, a great final battle wasfought, and the dominion of the pirates was ended forever.

pompey destroyed their ships, dismantledtheir fortifications, restored the harbors and towns which they had seized to theirrightful owners, and sent the pirates themselves, with their wives and children, far into the interior of the country, andestablished them as agriculturists and herdsmen there, in a territory which he setapart for the purpose, where they might live in peace on the fruits of their own industry, without the possibility of againdisturbing the commerce of the seas. instead of returning to rome after theseexploits, pompey obtained new powers from the government of the city, and pushed hisway into asia minor, where he remained

several years, pursuing a similar career ofconquest to that of caesar in gaul. at length he returned to rome, his entranceinto the city being signalized by a most magnificent triumph. the procession for displaying the trophies,the captives, and the other emblems of victory, and for conveying the vastaccumulation of treasures and spoils, was two days in passing into the city; and enough was left after all for anothertriumph. pompey was, in a word, on the very summitof human grandeur and renown. he found, however, an old enemy and rivalat rome.

this was crassus, who had been pompey'sopponent in earlier times, and who now renewed his hostility. in the contest that ensued, pompey reliedon his renown, crassus on his wealth. pompey attempted to please the people bycombats of lions and of elephants which he had brought home from his foreigncampaigns; crassus courted their favor by distributing corn among them, and invitingthem to public feasts on great occasions. he spread for them, at one time, it wassaid, ten thousand tables. all rome was filled with the feuds of thesegreat political foes. it was at this time that caesar returnedfrom spain, and had the adroitness, as has

already been explained, to extinguish thesefeuds, and reconcile these apparently implacable foes. he united them together, and joined themwith himself in a triple league, which is celebrated in roman history as the firsttriumvirate. the rivalry, however, of these greataspirants for power was only suppressed and concealed, without being at all weakened orchanged. the death of crassus soon removed him fromthe stage. caesar and pompey continued afterward, forsome time, an ostensible alliance. caesar attempted to strengthen this bond bygiving pompey his daughter julia for his

julia, though so young--even her father wassix years younger than pompey--was devotedly attached to her husband, and hewas equally fond of her. she formed, in fact, a strong bond of unionbetween the two great conquerors as long as she lived. one day, however, there was a riot at anelection, and men were killed so near to pompey that his robe was covered withblood. he changed it; the servants carried homethe bloody garment which he had taken off, and julia was so terrified at the sight,thinking that her husband had been killed, that she fainted, and her constitutionsuffered very severely by the shock.

she lived some time afterward, but finallydied under circumstances which indicate that this occurrence was the cause. pompey and caesar now soon became openenemies. the ambitious aspirations which each ofthem cherished were so vast, that the world was not wide enough for them both to besatisfied. they had assisted each other up the ascentwhich they had been so many years in climbing, but now they had reached verynear to the summit, and the question was to be decided which of the two should have hisstation there. history of julius caesar by jacob abbottchapter vi.

crossing the rubicon. there was a little stream in ancient times,in the north of italy, which flowed westward into the adriatic sea, called therubicon. this stream has been immortalized by thetransactions which we are now about to describe. the rubicon was a very important boundary,and yet it was in itself so small and insignificant that it is now impossible todetermine which of two or three little brooks here running into the sea isentitled to its name and renown. in history the rubicon is a grand,permanent, and conspicuous stream, gazed

upon with continued interest by all mankindfor nearly twenty centuries; in nature it is an uncertain rivulet, for a long time doubtful and undetermined, and finallylost. the rubicon originally derived itsimportance from the fact that it was the boundary between all that part of the northof italy which is formed by the valley of the po, one of the richest and most magnificent countries of the world, and themore southern roman territories. this country of the po constituted what wasin those days called the hither gaul, and was a roman province.

it belonged now to caesar's jurisdiction,as the commander in gaul. all south of the rubicon was territoryreserved for the immediate jurisdiction of the city. the romans, in order to protect themselvesfrom any danger which might threaten their own liberties from the immense armies whichthey raised for the conquest of foreign nations, had imposed on every side very strict limitations and restrictions inrespect to the approach of these armies to the capitol.the rubicon was the limit on this northern side.

generals commanding in gaul were never topass it. to cross the rubicon with an army on theway to rome was rebellion and treason. hence the rubicon became, as it were, thevisible sign and symbol of civil restriction to military power. as caesar found the time of his service ingaul drawing toward a conclusion, he turned his thoughts more and more toward rome,endeavoring to strengthen his interest there by every means in his power, and to circumvent and thwart the designs ofpompey. he had and partisans in rome who acted forhim and in his name.

he sent immense sums of money to these men,to be employed in such ways as would most tend to secure the favor of the people.he ordered the forum to be rebuilt with great magnificence. he arranged great celebrations, in whichthe people were entertained with an endless succession of games, spectacles, and publicfeasts. when his daughter julia, pompey's wife,died, he celebrated her funeral with indescribable splendor. he distributed corn in immense quantitiesamong the people, and he sent a great many captives home, to be trained as gladiators,to fight in the theaters for their

amusement. in many cases, too, where he found men oftalents and influence among the populace, who had become involved in debt by theirdissipations and extravagance, he paid their debts, and thus secured theirinfluence on his side. men were astounded at the magnitude ofthese expenditures, and, while the multitude rejoiced thoughtlessly in thepleasures thus provided for them, the more reflecting and considerate trembled at the greatness of the power which was so rapidlyrising to overshadow the land. it increased their anxiety to observe thatpompey was gaining the same kind of

influence and ascendency too. he had not the advantage which caesarenjoyed in the prodigious wealth obtained from the rich countries over which caesarruled, but he possessed, instead of it, the advantage of being all the time at rome, and of securing, by his character andaction there, a very wide personal popularity and influence.pompey was, in fact, the idol of the at one time, when he was absent from rome,at naples, he was taken sick. after being for some days in considerabledanger, the crisis passed favorably, and he recovered.

some of the people of naples proposed apublic thanksgiving to the gods, to celebrate his restoration to health. the plan was adopted by acclamation, andthe example, thus set, extended from city to city, until it had spread throughoutitaly, and the whole country was filled with the processions, games, shows, and celebrations, which were instituted everywhere in honor of the event. and when pompey returned from naples torome, the towns on the way could not afford room for the crowds that came forth to meethim. the high roads, the villages, the ports,says plutarch, were filled with sacrifices

and entertainments. many received him with garlands on theirheads and torches in their hands, and, as they conducted him along, strewed the waywith flowers. in fact, pompey considered himself asstanding far above caesar in fame and power, and this general burst of enthusiasmand applause, educed by his recovery from sickness, confirmed him in this idea. he felt no solicitude, he said, in respectto caesar. he should take no special precautionsagainst any hostile designs which he might entertain on his return from gaul.

it was he himself, he said, that had raisedcaesar up to whatever of elevation he had attained, and he could put him down evenmore easily than he had exalted him. in the mean time, the period was drawingnear in which caesar's command in the provinces was to expire; and, anticipatingthe struggle with pompey which was about to ensue, he conducted several of his legions through the passes of the alps, andadvanced gradually, as he had a right to do, across the country of the po toward therubicon, revolving in his capacious mind, as he came, the various plans by which he might hope to gain the ascendency over thepower of his mighty rival, and make himself

supreme. he concluded that it would be his wisestpolicy not to a'tempt to intimidate pompey by great and open preparations for war,which might tend to arouse him to vigorous measures of resistance, but rather to cover and conceal his designs, and thus throw hisenemy off his guard. he advanced, therefore, toward the rubiconwith a small force. he established his headquarters at ravenna,a city not far from the river, and employed himself in objects of local interest there,in order to avert as much as possible the minds of the people from imagining that hewas contemplating any great design.

pompey sent to him to demand the return ofa certain legion which he had lent him from his own army at a time when they werefriends. caesar complied with this demand withoutany hesitation, and sent the legion home. he sent with this legion, also, some othertroops which were properly his own, thus evincing a degree of indifference inrespect to the amount of the force retained under his command which seemed wholly inconsistent with the idea that hecontemplated any resistance to the authority of the government at rome. in the mean time, the struggle at romebetween the partisans of caesar and pompey

grew more and more violent and alarming.caesar through his friends in the city, demanded to be elected consul. the other side insisted that he must first,if that was his wish, resign the command of his army, come to rome, and present himselfas a candidate in the character of a private citizen. this the constitution of the state veryproperly required. in answer to this requisition, caesarrejoined, that, if pompey would lay down his military commands, he would do so too;if not, it was unjust to require it of him. the services, he added, which he hadperformed for his country, demanded some

recompense, which, moreover, they ought tobe willing to award, even if, in order to do it, it were necessary to relax somewhat in his favor the strictness of ordinaryrules. to a large part of the people of the citythese demands of caesar appeared reasonable. they were clamorous to have them allowed.the partisans of pompey, with the stern and inflexible cato at their head, deemed themwholly inadmissible, and contended with the most determined violence against them. the whole city was filled with theexcitement of this struggle, into which all

the active and turbulent spirits of thecapital plunged with the most furious zeal, while the more considerate and thoughtful of the population, remembering the days ofmarius and sylla, trembled at the impending danger.pompey himself had no fear. he urged the senate to resist to the utmostall of caesar's claims, saying, if caesar should be so presumptuous as to attempt tomarch to rome, he could raise troops enough by stamping with his foot to put him down. it would require a volume to contain a fullaccount of the disputes and tumults, the maneuvers and debates, the votes anddecrees which marked the successive stages

of this quarrel. pompey himself was all the time without thecity. he was in command of an army there, and nogeneral, while in command, was allowed to come within the gates. at last an exciting debate was broken up inthe senate by one of the consuls rising to depart, saying that he would hear thesubject discussed no longer. the time had arrived for action, and heshould send a commander, with an armed force, to defend the country from caesar'sthreatened invasion. caesar's leading friends, two tribunes ofthe people, disguised themselves as slaves,

and fled to the north to join their master.the country was filled with commotion and panic. the commonwealth had obviously more fear ofcaesar than confidence in pompey. the country was full of rumors in respectto caesar's power, and the threatening attitude which he was assuming, while theywho had insisted on resistance seemed, after all, to have provided very inadequatemeans with which to resist. a thousand plans were formed, andclamorously insisted upon by their respective advocates, for averting thedanger. this only added to the confusion, and thecity became at length pervaded with a

universal terror. while this was the state of things at rome,caesar was quietly established at ravenna; thirty or forty miles from the frontier. he was erecting a building for a fencingschool there and his mind seemed to be occupied very busily with the plans andmodels of the edifice which the architects had formed. of course, in his intended march to rome,his reliance was not to be so much on the force which he should take with him, as onthe co-operation and support which he expected to find there.

it was his policy, therefore, to move asquietly and privately as possible, and with as little display of violence, and to avoidevery thing which might indicate his intended march to any spies which might be around him, or to any other person! whomight be disposed to report what they observed at rome. accordingly, on the very eve of hisdeparture, he busied himself with his fencing school, and assumed with hisofficers and soldiers a careless and unconcerned air, which prevented any onefrom suspecting his design. in the course of the day he privately sentforward some cohorts to the southward, with

orders for them to encamp on the banks ofthe rubicon. when night came he sat down to supper asusual, and conversed with his friends in his ordinary manner, and went with themafterward to a public entertainment. as soon as it was dark and the streets werestill, he set off secretly from the city, accompanied by a very few attendants. instead of making use of his ordinaryequipage, the parading of which would have attracted attention to his movements, hehad some mules taken from a neighboring bake-house, and harnessed into his chaise. there were torch-bearers provided to lightthe way.

the cavalcade drove on during the night,finding, however, the hasty preparations which had been made inadequate for theoccasion. the torches went out, the guides lost theirway, and the future conqueror of the world wandered about bewildered and lost, until,just after break of day, the party met with a peasant who undertook to guide them. under his direction they made their way tothe main road again, and advanced then without further difficulty to the banks ofthe river, where they found that portion of the army which had been sent forwardencamped, and awaiting their arrival. caesar stood for some time upon the banksof the stream, musing upon the greatness of

the undertaking in which simply passingacross it would involve him. his officers stood by his side. "we can retreat now" said he, "but onceacross that river and we must go on." he paused for some time, conscious of thevast importance of the decision, though he thought only, doubtless, of itsconsequences to himself. taking the step which was now before himwould necessarily end either in his realizing the loftiest aspirations of hisambition, or in his utter and irreparable ruin. there were vast public interests, too, atstake, of which, however he probably

thought but little. it proved, in the end, that the history ofthe whole roman world, for several centuries, was depending upon the manner inwhich the question new in caesar's mind should turn. there was a little bridge across therubicon at the point where caesar was surveying it. while he was standing there, the story is,a peasant or shepherd came from the neighboring fields with a shepherd's pipe--a simple musical instrument, made of a reed, and used much by the rustic musiciansof those days.

the soldiers and some of the officersgathered around him to hear him play. among the rest came some of caesar'strumpeters, with their trumpets in their hands. the shepherd took one of these martialinstruments from the hands of its possessor, laying aside his own, and beganto sound a charge--which is a signal for a rapid advance--and to march at the same time over the bridge "an omen! a prodigy!"said caesar. "let us march where we are called by such adivine intimation. the die is cast."

so saying, he pressed forward over thebridge, while the officers, breaking up the encampment, put the columns in motion tofollow him. it was shown abundantly, on many occasionsin the course of caesar's life, that he had no faith in omens. there are equally numerous instances toshow that he was always ready to avail himself of the popular belief in them; toawaken his soldiers' ardor or to allay their fears. whether, therefore, in respect to thisstory of the shepherd trumpeter, it was an incident that really and accidentallyoccurred, or whether caesar planned and

arranged it himself, with reference to its effect, or whether, which is, perhaps,after all, the most probable supposition, the tale was only an embellishment inventedout of something or nothing by the story- tellers of those days, to give additional dramatic interest to the narrative of thecrossing of the rubicon, it must be left for each reader to decide. as soon as the bridge was crossed, caesarcalled an assembly of his troops, and, with signs of great excitement and agitation,made an address to them on the magnitude of the crisis through which they were passing.

he showed them how entirely he was in theirpower; he urged them, by the most eloquent appeals, to stand by him, faithful andtrue, promising them the most ample rewards when he should have attained the object atwhich he aimed. the soldiers responded to this appeal withpromises of the most unwavering fidelity. the first town on the roman side of therubicon was ariminum. caesar advanced to this town. the authorities opened its gates to him--very willing, as it appeared, to receive him as their commander. caesar's force was yet quite small, as hehad been accompanied by only a single

legion in crossing the river. he had, however, sent orders for the otherlegions, which had been left in gaul, to join him without any delay, though any re-enforcement of his troops seemed hardly necessary, as he found no indications ofopposition to his progress. he gave his soldiers the strictestinjunctions to do no injury to any property, public or private, as theyadvanced, and not to assume, in any respect, a hostile attitude toward thepeople of the country. the inhabitants, therefore, welcomed himwherever he came, and all the cities and towns followed the example of ariminum,surrendering, in fact, faster than he could

take possession of them. in the confusion of the debates and votesin the senate at rome before caesar crossed the rubicon, one decree had been passeddeposing him from his command of the army, and appointing a successor. the name of the general thus appointed wasdomitius. the only real opposition which caesarencountered in his progress toward rome was from him. domitius had crossed the apennines at thehead of an army on his way northward to supersede caesar in his command, and hadreached the town of corfinium, which was

perhaps one third of the way between romeand the rubicon. caesar advanced upon him here and shut himin. after a brief siege the city was taken, anddomitius and his army were made prisoners. every body gave them up for lost, expectingthat caesar would wreak terrible vengeance upon them. instead of this, he received the troops atonce into his own service, and let domitius go free. in the mean time, the tidings of caesar'shaving passed the rubicon, and of the triumphant success which he was meetingwith at the commencement of his march

toward rome, reached the capitol, and addedgreatly to the prevailing consternation. the reports of the magnitude of his forceand of the rapidity of his progress were greatly exaggerated. the party of pompey and the senate had doneevery thing to spread among the people the terror of caesar's name, in order to arousethem to efforts for opposing his designs; and now, when he had broken through the barriers which had been intended torestrain him, and was advancing toward the city in an unchecked and triumphant career,they were overwhelmed with dismay. pompey began to be terrified at the dangerwhich was impending.

the senate held meetings without the city--councils of war, as it were, in which they looked to pompey in vain for protectionfrom the danger which he had brought upon he had said that he could raise an armysufficient to cope with caesar at any time by stamping with his foot.they told him they thought now that it was high time for him to stamp. in fact, pompey found the current settingevery where strongly against him. some recommended that commissioners shouldbe sent to caesar to make proposals for peace. the leading men, however, knowing that anypeace made with him under such

circumstances would be their own ruin,resisted and defeated the proposal. cato abruptly left the city and proceededto sicily, which had been assigned him as his province.others fled in other directions. pompey himself, uncertain what to do, andnot daring to remain, called upon all his partisans to join him, and set off atnight, suddenly, and with very little preparation and small supplies, to retreat across the country toward the shores of theadriatic sea, his destination was brundusium, the usual port of embarkationfor macedon and greece. caesar was all this time graduallyadvancing toward rome.

his soldiers were full of enthusiasm in hiscause. as his connection with the government athome was sundered the moment he crossed the rubicon, all supplies of money and ofprovisions were cut off in that quarter until he should arrive at the capitol andtake possession of it. the soldiers voted, however, that theywould serve him without pay. the officers, too, assembled together, andtendered him the aid of their contributions. he had always observed a very generouspolicy in his dealings with them, and he was now greatly gratified at receivingtheir requital of it.

the further he advanced, too, the more hefound the people of the country through which he passed disposed to espouse hiscause. they were struck with his generosity inreleasing domitius. it is true that it was a very sagaciouspolicy that prompted him to release him. but then it was generosity too. in fact, there must be something of agenerous spirit in the soul to enable a man even to see the policy of generous actions. among the letters of caesar that remain tothe present day, there is one written about this time to one of his friends, in whichhe speaks of this subject.

"i am glad," says he, "that you approve ofmy conduct at corfinium. i am satisfied that such a course is thebest one for us to pursue, as by so doing we shall gain the good will of all parties,and thus secure a permanent victory. most conquerors have incurred the hatred ofmankind by their cruelties, and have all, in consequence of the enmity they have thusawakened, been prevented from long enjoying their power. sylla was an exception; but his example ofsuccessful cruelty i have no disposition to imitate. i will conquer after a new fashion, andfortify myself in the possession of the

power i acquire by generosity and mercy." domitius had the ingratitude, after thisrelease, to take up arms again, and wage a new war against caesar.when caesar heard of it, he said it was all right. "i will act out the principles of mynature," said he, "and he may act out his." another instance of caesar's generosityoccurred, which is even more remarkable than this. it seems that among the officers of hisarmy there were some whom he had appointed at the recommendation of pompey, at thetime when he and pompey were friends.

these men would, of course, feel underobligations of gratitude to pompey, as they owed their military rank to his friendlyinterposition in their behalf. as soon as the war broke out, caesar gavethem all his free permission to go over to pompey's side, if they chose to do so.caesar acted thus very liberally in all respects. he surpassed pompey very much in the spiritof generosity and mercy with which he entered upon the great contest before them. pompey ordered every citizen to join hisstandard, declaring that he should consider all neutrals as his enemies.

caesar, on the other hand, gave freepermission to every one to decline, if he chose, taking any part in the contest,saying that he should consider all who did not act against him as his friends. in the political contests of our day, it isto be observed that the combatants are much more prone to imitate the bigotry of pompeythan the generosity of caesar, condemning, as they often do, those who choose to stand aloof from electioneering struggles, morethan they do their most determined opponents and enemies. when, at length, caesar arrived atbrundusium, he found that pompey had sent a

part of his army across the adriatic intogreece, and was waiting for the transports to return that he might go over himselfwith the remainder. in the mean time, he had fortified himselfstrongly in the city. caesar immediately laid siege to the place,and he commenced some works to block up the mouth of the harbor. he built piers on each side, extending outas far into the sea as the depth of the water would allow them to be built. he then constructed a series of rafts,which he anchored on the deep water, in a line extending from one pier to the other.

he built towers upon these rafts, andgarrisoned them with soldiers, in hopes by this means to prevent all egress from thefort. he thought that, when this work wascompleted, pompey would be entirely shut in, beyond all possibility of escape.the transports, however, returned before the work was completed. its progress was, of course, slow, as theconstructions were the scene of a continued conflict; for pompey sent out rafts andgalleys against them every day, and the workmen had thus to build in the midst of continual interruptions, sometimes fromshowers of darts, arrows, and javelins,

sometimes from the conflagrations offireships, and sometimes from the terrible concussions of great vessels of war, impelled with prodigious force againstthem. the transports returned, therefore, beforethe defenses were complete, and contrived to get into the harbor. pompey immediately formed his plan forembarking the remainder of his army. he filled the streets of the city withbarricades and pitfalls, excepting two streets which led to the place ofembarkation. the object of these obstructions was toembarrass caesar's progress through the

city in case he should force an entrancewhile his men were getting on board the ships. he then, in order to divert caesar'sattention from his design, doubled the guards stationed upon the walls on theevening of his intended embarkation, and ordered them to make vigorous attacks uponall caesar's forces outside. he then, when the darkness came on, marchedhis troops through the two streets which had been left open, to the landing place,and got them as fast as possible on board the transports. some of the people of the town contrived tomake known to caesar's army what was going

on, by means of signals from the walls; thearmy immediately brought scaling ladders in great numbers, and, mounting the walls with great ardor and impetuosity, they drove allbefore them, and soon broke open the gates and got possession of the city. but the barricades and pitfalls, togetherwith the darkness, so embarrassed their movements, that pompey succeeded incompleting his embarkation and sailing away. caesar had no ships in which to follow.he returned to rome. he met, of course, with no opposition.

he re-established the government there,organized the senate anew, and obtained supplies of corn from the public granaries,and of money from the city treasury in the capitol. in going to the capitoline hill after thistreasure, he found the officer who had charge of the money stationed there todefend it. he told caesar that it was contrary to lawfor him to enter. caesar said that, for men with swords intheir hands, there was no law. the officer still refused to admit him. caesar then told him to open the doors, orhe would kill him on the spot.

"and you must understand," he added, "thatit will be easier for me to do it than it has been to say it." the officer resisted no longer, and caesarwent in. after this, caesar spent some time inrigorous campaigns in italy, spain, sicily, and gaul, wherever there was manifested anyopposition to his sway. when this work was accomplished, and allthese countries were completely subjected to his dominion, he began to turn histhoughts to the plan of pursuing pompey across the adriatic sea.