Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/706

634 won by the efforts of a demagogue, but could only be assured by an entire change of government. Failure to effect the purposes of government had diminished tha sense of responsibility in the ruling class. Jugurtha had been able to discover that Roman virtue was accessible to bribes. The direction of provinces at once gratified and stimulated ths avarice of statesmen. The riches of the world which were beginning to flow into the imperial city excited the desire for more. There existed at the same time th.3 demoralization which accompanies the breaking up and abandonment of old principles of conduct, and an unsettled yearning for the adjustment of pressing difficulties. We may credit the Gracchi with a far-seeing grasp of the wants of their country, but they could not but appear to their con temporaries as mischievous revolutionists. Sulla attempted to give new strength and power to a system which had sunk into hopeless decay. Marius was inspired rather with a rough contempt for expedients which could never be successful, than with a patriotic desire to elevate the people from whom he sprung. The impotence of statesmen to understand or to regulate the age led to the employment of violence and bloodshed. A domestic enemy had forced the gates of Borne, and each political victory was sealed with the blood of the vanquished. The senate which had conquered the world was unable to defend itself ; it could neither recover its former power nor bring into being a new constitution. It could not exercise the ocdinary functions of government without entrusting to a citizen powers which might be turned against its own existence. It is difficult to imagine what would have been the destiny of a world from which the cohesive force which bound it to gether might at any time be removed. If Rome had perished in this crisis she would have left but a faint impress upon the nations who owned her sovereignty. The long reign of law and order, from which we derive the chief legacies which Rome has left to the modern world, was yet to come. That the newly-founded empire did not fall before the onslaught of an eastern despot, or break up into separate provinces governed by rebellious citizens, is due, as far as we can see, to Julius Caasar alone. It is difficult to see how such a man could have been produced by the wants of any age, but there is no doubt that the course of future history was marked out in no slight degree by the genius and foresight of this single individual. Caesar displayed at the very outset of his career the same versatility, energy, and courage which distinguished him till its close. When ordered by Sulla to put away his wife, who was connected with the Marian party, he refused to obey, although he lost by the refusal his wife s dower, his priesthood, and his fortune. Although compelled to quit Rome to avoid the dictator s anger, he did not deprive his country of his services. His diplomacy served to obtain from Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, a fleet, which was used in the reduction of Mitylene, and by his personal bravery in the siege he won from Marcus Thermus the reward of a civic crown. He served in Cilicia against the pirates, whose extinction was to be the great glory of his rival, and either at this or at a later time (for authorities differ on this point) had an adventure with them, which displays bis subtlety and resource. Taken prisoner by them at the island of Pharmacussa he sent the main body of his com panions and attendants to seek his ransom. During his stay of forty days, he ingratiated himself with his captors, and promised them in jest that when once set free he would return and crucify them, and he kept his word. When he was released he armed some vessels of Miletus, found the pirates in the anchorage where he had left them, took them into Pergamus, and handed them over to the civil arm. When a student under Apollonius Molo at Rhodes, on the outbreak of the Mithridatic war, he passed, of his own accord, to the continent, drove the king s general from the province, and restored the shaken allegiance of the subject towns. A Roman citizen of birth was expected not only to be a general and a statesman but an orator. He must be practised in every branch of the art of govern ment. Caesar attained distinction in the forum with the same ease as he had won .it in the field. He accused Dolabella of extortion in the provinces in 77 B.C., and Antonius of a similar offence in 76 B.C. In neither pro secution was he successful, bub he gained in both a reputa tion for eloquence and public spirit. To perfect himself in oratory he sought the instruction of Apollonius before men tioned, under whom Cicero had also studied, and who had striven with little success to curb the extravagance of his redundant diction. Perhaps it is to him that we owe the massive and monumental eloquence, the pure and chastened taste of the Commentaries. The chronology of these events is uncertain, but in 74 B.C. Caesar returned to Rome, and was elected pontiff and military tribune. Not untried in war and in affairs, tinged with Greek culture but not weakened by it, in the prime of youth and the fulness of fascination, he was fitted in every way to gain the favour of his country men, and to play his part in the game of politics, which required then, if ever, an open brow and secret thoughts. For the next twelve years Caesar, with the exception of a short absence in Spain as quaestor, remained at Rome. During the whole of this time he lent his assistance to the task of strengthening and reviving the democratic party, which had sunk very low after the death of Marius. He was thus brought constantly into connection with Pom- peius, and it is difficult for us to determine whether Caesar supported Pompeius because he perceived that his ends were those which he himself wished to gain, or whether Pompeius courted the democratic party for the purpose of his own aggrandizement. In 70 B.C. Pompeius, in con junction with Crassus, repealed the Sullan constitution, and in the measures which were necessary for this pur pose he had the full approval and support of Caesar. The power of the tribunes was restored, that of the seriate diminished. The control of the law courts, which Sulla had given back to the senate, and which had been abused to shield from punishment high-born plunderers of the pro vinces, was now divided among the senate, the equites, who were the great capitalists, and the tribuni aerarii, who represented a still more popular element. Caosar in this conduct was true to the principles which animated his whole career, a desire to give equality to the citizens, and recognition to the subjects of Rome, and to obliterate as far as possible the scars of civil dissension. In 68 B.C. he lost his aunt and his wife, one the widow of Marius, the other the daughter of Cinna. In the orations which he pronounced over them in the forum, he was able to reha bilitate the reputation of the leaders of his party. At his aunt s funeral he caused busts of Marius to be carried in the procession, and the people were roused to recall at once the greatness of their general, whose memory had been so long proscribed, and the generous courage of his kinsman in restoring it. As the power of the senate became weakened, respect for the old safeguards of the constitution became less strong. It was therefore not unnatural, when Rome was suffering from the attacks of enemies whom she could not quell, that she should invest her former general with an extraordinary command, and seek in new expedients a remedy which the constitution had failed to supply. Such was the origin of the Gabinian and Manilian laws, the first of which conferred on Pompeius a command against the pirates of the Mediterranean, while the second gave him con trol of the Mithridatic war. Never had such power been concentrated in the hands of a single citizen. He was invested with absolute control for three years over the whole 