Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/572

Rh 554 CAESAR. of them had taken an active part in the war against Caesar, and had not onlj'' been forgiven by him, but raised to offices of rank and honour ; but for- giveness by an enemy, instead of exciting gratitude, only renders the benefactor still more hateful to men of low and base minds. They pretended that their object was to restore liberty to the state, and some, perhaps M. Brutus among the rest, believed that they should be doing good service to their country by the assassination of its ruler. But the majority were undoubtedly actuated by the mere motive of restoring their own party to power: every open attempt to crush their enemy had failed, and they had now recourse to assassination as the only means of accomplishing their object. Their project was nearly discovered; but Caesar disre- garded the warnings that had been given him, and fell by the daggers of his assassins in the senate- house, on the ides, or fifteenth, of March, B. c. 44. Caesar's death was undoubtedly a loss not only for the Roman people, but the whole civilized world. The republic was utterly lost ; it could not have been restored ; and if there had been any possibi- lity of establishing it again, it would have fallen into the hands of a profligate aristocracy, which would only have sought its own aggrandizement upon the ruins of its country. Now the Roman world was called to go through many years of disorder and bloodshed, till it rested again under the supremacy of Augustus, who had neither the talents, the power, nor the inclination to carry into effect the vast and salutary plans of his uncle. When we recollect the latter years of the Roman republic, the depravity and corniption of the ruling class, the scenes of anarchy and bloodshed which con- sUmtly occurred in the streets of the capital, it is evident that the last days of the republic had come, and that its only hope of peace and security was under the strong hand of military power. And fortunate was it in obtaining a ruler so mild and 80 beneficent as Caesar. Pompey was not naturally cruel, but he was weak and irresolute, and was surrounded by men who would have forced him into the most violent and sanguinary acts, if his party had prevailed. Caesar was in his fifty-sixth year at the time of his death. His personal appearance was noble and commanding ; he was tall in stature, of a fair com- plexion, and with black eyes full of expression. He never wore a beard, and in the latter part of his life his head was bald. His constitution was originally delicate, and he was twice attacked by epilepsy while transacting public business ; but, by constant exercise and abstemious living, he had acquired strong and vigorous health, and could en- dure almost any amount of exertion. He took great pains with his person, and was considered to be effeminate in his dress. His moral character, as far as the connexion of the sexes goes, was as low as that of the rest of the Romans of his age. His intrigues with the most distinguished Roman la- dies were notorious, and he was equally lavish of his favours in the provinces. If we now turn to the intellectual character of Caesar, we see that he was gifted bj' nature with the most various talents, and was distinguished by the most extraordinary genius and attainments in the most diversified pursuits. He was at one and the same time a general, a statesman, a lawgiver, a jurist, an orator, a poet, an historian, a philologer, a mathematician and an architect. He was equally CAESAR. fitted to excel in all, and has given proofs that he would have surpassed almost all other men in any subject to which he devoted the energies of his extraordinary mind. Julius Caesar was the great- est man of antiquity ; and this fact must be our apology for the length to which this notice has ex- tended. His greatness as a general has been suffi- ciently shewn by the above sketch ; but one cir- cumstance, which has been generally overlooked, places his genius for war in a most striking light. Till his fortieth year, when he went as propraetor into Spain, Caesar had been almost entirely en- gaged in civil life. He had served, it is true, in his youth, but it was only for a short time, and in campaigns of secondary importance ; he had never been at the head of an army, and his whole mili- tary experience must have been of the most limited kind. Most of the greatest generals in the history of the world have been distinguished at an early age : Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Frederick of Prussia, and Napoleon Bonaparte, gained some of their most brilliant victories imder the age of thirty ; but Caesar from the age of twenty-three to forty had seen nothing of war, and, notwith- standing, appears all at once as one of the greatest generals that the world has ever seen. During the whole of his busy life Caesar found time for literary pursuits, and always took pleasure in the society and conversation of men of learning. He himself was the author of many works, the majority of which has been lost. The purity of his Latin and the clearness of his style were cele- brated by the ancients themselves, and are con- spicuous in his " Commcntarii," which are his only works that have come down to us. They relate the history of the first seven years of the Grallic war in seven books, and the history of the Civil war down to the commencement of the Alex- andrine in three books. In them Caesar has care- fully avoided all rhetorical embellishments ; he narrates the events in a clear unassuming style, and with such apparent truthfulness that he carries conviction to the mind of the reader. They seem to have been composed in the course of his cam- paigns, and were probably worked up into their pre- sent form during his winter-quarters. The Com- mentaries on the Gallic War were published after the completion of the war in Gaul, and those on the Civil War probably after his return from Alexan- dria. The " Ephemerides" of Caesar must not be regarded as a separate work, but only as the Greek name of the " Commentarii." Neither of these works, however, completed the history of the Gallic and Civil wars. The history of the former was completed in an eighth book, which is usually ascribed to Hirtius, and the history of the Alexandrine, African, and Spanish wars Avere written in three separate books, which are also ascribed to Hirtius. The question of their author- ship is discussed under Hirtius. Besides the Commentaries, Caesar also wrote the following works, which have been lost, but the mere titles of which are a proof of his literary ac- tivity and diversified knowledge: — 1. " Ora- tiones," some of which have been mentioned in the preceding account, and a complete list of which is given in Meyer's Oratorum Ronianorum Fragmenia^ p. 404*, &c., 2nd ed. The ancient writers speak of Caesar as one of the first orators of his age, and describe him as only second to Cicero. (Quintil. x. 1. § 114; Veil. Pat. ii, 36 j