Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/571

Rh CAESAR. the pim?8 of the circus and tlio ampliithoatre been tvlebrated with such splendour; for Caesar well knew the temper of the Roman populace, and that they would be willing enough to surrender their Bo-called liberties if they were well fed and amused. Caesjir next appears in the character of a legis- lator. He now proceeded to correct the various evils which had crept into the state, and to obtain the enactment of several laws suitable to the alter- ed condition of the commonwedth. He attempted by severe sumptuary laws to restrain the extrava- gance which pervaded all classes of society. In order to prevent any other general from fol- lowing his own career, he obtained a law by which no one was to be allowed to hold a praeto- rian province for longer than one year, or a consular for more than two years. But the most important of his changes this year (b. c. 46) was the reforma- tion of the calendar, which was a real benefit to his country and the civilized world, and which he accomplished in his character as pontifex maximus, with the assistanceofSosigenes, the Alexandrine ma- thematiciiin, and the scribe M. Flavius, though he himself also was well acquainted with astronomy. The regulation of the Roman calendar had always been entrusted to the college of pontiffs, who had been accustomed to lengthen or shorten the year at their pleasure for political purposes ; and the confu- sion had at length become so great, that the Roman year was three months in advance of the real time. To remedy this serious evil, Caesar added 90 days to this year, and thus made the whole year consist of 445 days ; and he guarded against a repetition of similar errors for the future by adapting the year to the sun's course. {Diet, of Ant. s.v. Calendarium.) In the midst of these labours, Caesar was inter- rupted by intelligence of a formidable insurrection which had broken out in Spain, where the remains of the Pompeian party had again collected a large army under the command of Pompcy's sons, Cneius and Sextus. Having been previously designated consul ajid dictator for the following year, Caesar set out for Spain at the latter end of B. c. 46. AV'ith his usual activity', he arrived at Obulco near Corduba in twenty-seven days from the time of his leaving Rome. He found the enemy able to offer stronger opposition than he had anticipated ; but he brought the war to a close by the battle of Munda, on the 1 7th of March, B. c. 45, in which he entirely defeated the enemy. It was, however, a hard-fought battle : Caesar's troops were at first driven back, and were only rallied again by their genei-al's exposing his own person, like a common soldier, in the front line of the battle. Cn. Pom- peius was killed shortly afterwards, but Sextus made good his escape. The settlement of the affairs in Spain detained Caesar in the province some months longer, and he consequently did not reach Rome till September. He entered the city at the beginning of October in triumph on account of his victories in Spain, although the victory had been gained over Roman citizens, and he also al- lowed triumphs to his legates Fabius Maximus and Q. Pedius. The senate received him with the most MTvile flattery. They had in his absence voted a public thanksgiving of fifty days on account of his victory in Spain, and various other honorary de- crees, and they now vied with each other in paying him every species of adulation and homage, lie was to wear, on all public occasions, the triumphal robe ; he was to receive the title of " Father of his CAESAR. 553 country ;" statues of him were to be placed in ali the temples ; his portrait was to be struck on coins; the month of Quintilis was to receive the name of Julius in his honour, and he was to be raised to a rank among the gods. But there were still more important decrees than these, which were intended to legalise his power and confer upon him the whole government of the Roman world. He received the title of imperator for life ; he was nominated consul for the next ten years, and both dictator and prae- fectus morura for life ; his person was declared sacred ; a guard of senators and knights was ap- pointed to protect him, and the whole senate took an oath to watch over his safety. If we now look at the way in which Caesar ex- erted his sovereign power, it cannot be denied that he used it in the main for the good of his country. He still pursued his former merciful course : no proscriptions or executions took place ; and he began to revolve vast schemes for the benefit of the Ro- man world. He was at the same time obliged to reward his followers, and for that reason he greatly increased the number of senators, augmented the number of public magistrates, so that there were to be sixteen praetors, forty quaestors, and six aediles, and he added new members to the priestly colleges. Among his other plans of internal improvement, he proposed to frame a digest of all the Roman laws, to establish public libraries, to drain the Pomptine marshes, to enlarge the harbour of Ostia, and to dig a canal through the isthmus of Corinth. To protect the boundaries of the Roman empire, he meditated expeditions against the Parthians and the barbarous tribes on the Danube, and had already begun to make preparations for his departure to the East. In the midst of these vast projects he entered upon the last year of his life, B. c. 44, and his fifth consulship and dictatorship. He had made M. Antony his colleague in the consulship, and M. Lepidus the master of the horse. Caesar had for some time past resolved to preserve the supreme power in his family; and, as he had no legitimate children, had fixed upon his great- nephew Octavius (afterwards the emperor Augustus) as his successor. Possessing royal power, he now wished to obtain the title of king, which he might hand down to his successor on the throne, and accordingly got his colleague Antony to offer him the diadem in public on the festival of the Lu- percalia (the 15th of February); but, seeing that the proposition was not favourably received by the people, he resolved to decline it for the pre- sent. Caesar's wish for the title of king must not be regarded as merely a desire to obtain an empty honour, the reality of which he already pos- sessed. Had he obtained it, and been able to be- queath it to his successor, he would have saved the state from many of the evils which subsequently arose from the anomalous constitution of the Ro- man empire as it was finally established by Au- gustus. The state would then have become an hereditary and not an elective monarchy, and would not have fallen into the hands of an insolent and rapacious soldiery. Meantime, the conspiracy against Caesar's life had been already formed as early as the begin- ning of the year. It had been set afoot by Cassius, a personal enemy of Caesar's, and there were more than sixty persons privy to it. Per- sonal hatred alone seems to have been the motive of Cassius, and probably of several others. Many