Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/547

 CAESAR 541 ( KS MS. Cains .Inliii-, a Roman general and statesman, born, according to authorities long universally credited, July 12, 100 B. C., but, according to the almost unanswerable proof recently advanced by Mommson, exactly two years earlier, assassinated in the senate house on the ides (loth) of March, 44 B. C. The month of his birth, previously called Quin- tilis, was from his name called Julius, from which comes our July. His father, of the same name, was of praetorian r:ink, and his mother belonged to the family of Aurelius Gotta. From the earliest age he gave evidence of the most extraordinary endowments. He was quick to learn, of wonderful memory, the live- liest imagination, and indefatigable diligence. In his 17th year, having been married to one Cossutia, he procured a divorce in order to marry Cornelia, a daughter of Cinna, then a leader of the democratic party.'' His aunt Ju- lia had previously married Marius, the fore- most democratic chief; and thus by a double connection Caesar was brought upon the popu- lar side. Sulla sought to detach him from this party by persuading him to repudiate his wife, but Cfflsar refused. Sulla, angry at this, strip- ped him of his wife's dowry, of the fortune he had inherited, and of the office offiamen dialis (priest of Jupiter) which he held. Cassar even deemed it necessary to quit Rome, and esca- ping the satellites of Sulla, who tracked him in his flight, he took refuge with Nicomedes, king of Bithynia. Minucius Thermus was then praetor in Asia, and appointed Caesar to conduct the siege of Mytilene, which he did with re- markable energy and success. The death of Sulla allowed him to return to Rome, where he indicted Dolabella for extortion in Macedonia (77) ; but the senate saved its partisan. The credit he gained as an orator in the case of Dolabella suggested to him the design of culti- vating eloquence, for which purpose he set out for Rhodes, tp receive the instructions of Molo, who a year or two before was Cicero's teacher. On the way thither he was captured by a band of Cilician pirates, who detained him 38 days. They asked a ransom of 30 talents (over $30,000), which he laughed at, saying that if they knew who he was they would demand 50. He consented to pay it, but told them that if he ever caught them after- ward he would crucify them all. Arrived at the island of Delos, he was set on shore, and paid the ransom ; but he immediately organized a small fleet, sailed in pursuit of the pirates, came up with and captured them, and taking them to land reported their case to the Roman proconsul. While that magistrate was con- sidering what was to be done, Csesar remem- bered his threat, and executed the whole gang. In 74, hearing that he had been chosen one of the pontifices, he returned to Rome, and for a while led a life of pleasure, some say of gross debauchery, winning the good opinion of the people by his affable manners and careless generosity. In 73 he was chosen a military tribune, and in 68 a quaestor, in which office he delivered a panegyric on his aunt Julia, the wife of Marius; and he also caused the bust of Marius to be carried in procession, for the first time since the dictatorship of Sulla. While he was quaestor he also served in Spain, distinguishing himself by his military capaci- ty. In 65 he was elected aedile, and this office, being connected with the public entertain- ments, gave him an opportunity to display his taste for magnificence. He raised again the trophies of victory, which, erected in the capi- tal by Marius, had been thrown down by Sulla's order; and he enlarged the theatres, and gave splendid games and festivals. He came out of the sedileship several millions of dollars in debt. In 63 the conspiracy of Catiline was discovered, and Caesar was suspected of complicity in it ; but when the matter came up in the senate some time later, he succeeded, to the satisfac- tion of his auditors, though not of historians, in disproving the story, lie defended the con- spirators, however, from the punishment of death, holding that it would be wiser to scat- ter them and keep them under strict guard. In the same year he aspired to the place of pontifex maximus, one of considerable influence and emolument. Catulus, an opposing candi- date, offered to pay his debts if he would with- draw, but Caesar replied that he would borrow more money than that if it were necessary to his success. On the day of election he remark- ed to his mother that this day would see him either the chief priest of Rome or a dead man. He was elected, getting more votes from the tribes of his opponents than they did them- selves. The next year (62) he became praetor, and on laying down that office was transferred, as was the custom, to the government of a prov- ince. He selected Spain; but before he de- parted his creditors arrested him, and his friend Crassus had to become his security to the amount of nearly $5,000,000. He achiev- ed not a little military success in Spain in a cruel war against the native tribes, and then hurried back to run for the consulship. He was chosen, and administered the government with unexampled vigor (59). His colleague, Bibulus, attempted in the outset to check him in his objects, but in a short time was com- pletely outmanaged, and when he attempted to resist Caesar's measures was carried from the forum by the lictors at Csesar's order. He limited the powers of the senate, often even disregarding their constitutional decrees ; pro- cured the passage of a law for the distribution of lands among the poorer classes ; gained the favor of the equestrian order by releasing it from an oppressive contract ; and made him- self a great favorite with the people. At the same time he strengthened the political coali- tion made the preceding year with Pompey and Crassus, and known as the first triumvirate. At the close of his term he was given the govern- ment of Cisalpine Gaul, with Illyricum, for five years ; and the senate, the more effectually to