Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/710

638 of Latin independence., and the city of Aquila languishes under the snows of the Gran Sasso d ltalia, a monument of the vain but chivalrous struggle of the emperors against the popes. Into these upland valleys, lying midway between the two seas, Caasar dashed with irresistible force; and town after town fell before him and his lieutenants. Pompeius moved slowly towards Brundusium, whither he was followed by the conqueror. Caesar was unable to prevent the em barkation of his troops for Greece, but when by the end of March he reached Rome he was already the undisputed master of Italy. In his next operations Caesar displayed to a marvellous degree his ability and resources, and showed how the suc cess of his projects depended entirely upon his personal exertions. His lieutenants were seldom fortunate; but, like Napoleon, his presence was worth an army, and, like Frederick the Great, he knew how to spring at once from the deepest embarrassments to the triumph of victory. At Ilerda his army was cooped up between two rivers, and all communication with Rome cut off. By a clever stratagem he surrounded Afranius and Petreius, and compelled them to surrender. At Dyrrachium he was in a worse position, encamped on a barren ridge, encompassed by a far superior army on the land side, and cut off from the sea, which was in the power of his enemies. Even when he had received his reinforcements he could not hold his own against greater numbers. Yet he was able to take advantage of the first mistake of Pompeius, and the victory of Pharsalus was crushing and complete. At Alexandria, where his stay is difficult to account for even by the attractions of Cleopatra, he nearly fell a victim to a popular tumult, yet he was no sooner extricated from his difficulties than he marched into Asia, saw and conquered the son of the great Mithri- dates, and placed the affairs of the East on a basis of security. In Africa he had allowed the Pompeians to attain a dangerous efficiency of organization by his delay at Alexandria, and it was only through the extremest caution that he was enabled to assemble his tardy forces. But the battle of Thapsus deprived the senate of their last and noblest champion, and left Caesar the master of the Roman world. The capitulation of Ilerda took place in August 49 B.C., the winter of 49-48 B.C. was passed on the coast of tllyria, the battle of Pharsalus was fought on August 9, 48 B.C., and Pharnaces was defeated at Zela on August 2, 47 B.C. Caesar s stay at Rome was chequered by the mutiny of the legions in Campania, and the difficulty of assembling his troops ; yet he was able to land in Africa before the end of 47 B.C., and he won the victory of Thapsus on April 6, 46 B.C. In July of that year he entered Rome as conqueror, and could now find leisure to govern the world which he had subdued. During four separate days he celebrated four triumphs over Gaul, Egypt, Pontus, and Africa. Vercingetorix, who struggled in vain to save his country, Arsinoe the sister of Cleopatra, and the son of Juba, king of Mauretania, followed his triumphal car. The citizens were publicly feasted at the dictator s expense, a distribution of money was made to the poor, and the strange magnificence of the games celebrated in memory of his daughter Julia fulfilled the promise of the splendour of his sedileship. One more struggle was necessary before peace was finally secured. The sons of Pompeius, Cnaeus and Sextus, had collected a large army in Spain, which had always been the stronghold of^ their cause. The battle of Munda, fought on March 17, 45 B.C., resulted in their entire defeat, but Caesar was com pelled to be absent from the capital from the end of 46 B.C. till September 45 B.C. It may be questioned whether Caesar was himself anxious to receive the title of king, which his admirers were without doubt desirous to force upon him. Such a title would have added but little to his real power over every depart ment of the state. After the expulsion of the kings the Roman constitution came eventually into such a form that, while every interest was represented, the whole power could never come into the hands of one individual. The two consuls were a check upon each other, and they were, themselves subordinate to the senate. The tribunes occupied an entirely different position to the other magis trates, and defended the interests of the mass of the citizens. The senate itself was controlled by the censoi-, and the working of the political machine was so ordered that a single magistrate could, either by his personal objec tion, or by a skilful use of divine sanctions, obstruct any measure of a rash or unusual character. The chief officers of the state were occasionally suspended by the appoint ment of .a dictator for extraordinary emergencies, but it had probably never occurred to any statesman that the whole of these well-balanced and often conflicting authorities might come to be concentrated in the person of one man. Yet it was by these means that the republic became a. monarchy, and that Csesar became emperor. He was five times consul and four times dictator, and at his death was dictator elect for life. He had the tribunician power conferred upon him, which, among other advantages, rendered his person inviolable. Instead of the censorship he was invested with the new office of praefectus morum, which he used to curb the luxury and extravagance induced by the influx of conquered wealth. His opinion was, as princeps senatus, asked first in the senate ; his effigy was struck upon the coins. The exaggerated and half-divine honours which the servility of the senate invested added but little to his power, but the title of imperator, with which many a successful general had been saluted on the field of battle, was now prefixed to his name as a perma nent addition, and has remained, together with the family name of him who first bore it, as the- title of highest sovereignty throughout the civilized world. The complex of authorities thus placed in his hands he used in a manner to justify the confidence of those who entrusted them to him. It is difficult to give an accurate account of his administration. Mommsen, in the brilliant chapter which at present closes his history of Rome, has scarcely dis tinguished with sufficient care between Caesar s intentions and his acts, and between his measures and those of his successors. Yet we have ample evidence that much was done and much more conceived. If we follow the authority of Suetonius we find that he reformed the calendar by intercalating three months in the year 46, and making arrangements for the future, which lasted unchanged till the 1 6th century. He increased the number of the senate to nine hundred, and made it more thoroughly representative of all classes and all parts of the empire. He increased the num ber of the magistrates, did his best to heal the wounds left by the civil war, and reformed the courts of justice. He confined donations of corn to the poorer citizens, and while by the rebuilding of Carthage and Corinth he found a refuge for many who would have starved at home, he did his best to prohibit absenteeism, and to discourage the tillage of the soil of Italy by slaves. He gave the rights of citizenship to men of science and to professors of liberal arts, enforced the laws without favour, and attempted with little success to restrain the luxury of the age. He prepared the way for the work of his successor, who found Rome of brick and left it of marble. He intended to codify the law, and to provide public libraries of Greek and Latin works, the care of which he entrusted to Varro, the most learned of the Romans. He is credited with the design of draining the Pontine marshes, a work yet to be performed ; of con verting the Fucine lake into a fertile plain, an enterprise begun by Claudius and completed by Prince Torlonia ; of 