Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.4, 1865).djvu/313

 (LESAR. 305 camp, were most of them servants ; and that not above six thousand soldiers fell. Caesar incorporated most of the foot whom he took prisoners, with his own legions, and gave a free pardon to many of the distinguished per- sons, and amongst the rest, to Brutus, who afterwards killed him. He did not immediately appear after the battle was over, which put Ccesar, it is said, into great anxiety for him ; nor was his pleasure less when he saw him present himself alive. There were many prodigies that foreshowed this vic- tory, but the most remarkable that we are told of, was that at Tralles. In the temple of Victory stood Caesar's statue. The ground on which it stood was naturally hard and solid, and the stone with which it was paved still harder ; yet it is said that a palm-tree shot itself up near the pedestal of this statue. In the city of Padua, one Caius Cornelius, who had the character of a good augur, the fellow-citizen and acquaintance of Livy, the historian, happened to be making some augural observations that very day when the battle was fought. And first, as Livy tells us, he pointed out the time of the fight, and said to those who were by him, that just then the battle was begun, and the men engaged. When he looked a second time, and ob- served the omens, he leaped up as if he had been inspired, and cried out, " Caesar, you are victorious." This much surprised the standers by, but he took the garland which he had on from his head, and swore he would never wear it again till the event should give authority to his art. This Livy positively states for a truth. Caesar, as a memorial of his victory, gave the Thessa- lians their freedom, and then went in pursuit of Pompey. When he was come into Asia, to gratify Theopompus, the author of the collection of fables, he enfranchised the Cnidians, and remitted one third of their tribute to all VOL. iv. 20