Page:The Children's Plutarch, Romans.djvu/156

 “Cæsar has made himself a statue by raising up Pompey's.”

Some of the patricians hated the new dictator. They felt that he stood in their way, and prevented them from obtaining riches and command. Cæsar's friends knew of this hatred, and begged him never to go out without a body-guard.

“No,” he replied; “it is better to die once than always to walk about in fear of death.”

Cæsar would sit alone in his chamber and make great plans. He dreamed dreams of things he would do for Rome and for the world. He said to himself:

“I will march against the Parthians in the East, and against the Germans in the North, and bend them all to my will.

“I will dig through the neck of land by Corinth, so that ships may pass through a sea-canal.

“I will make the river Tiber deeper for big merchant vessels to bring their loads of corn and wine and oil to the gates of Rome.

“I will drain the filthy water out of the great marshes, so that pleasant fields may take the place of deadly swamps.

“I will build a dike along the western coast of Italy, and construct harbors in which hundreds of galleys may ride at anchor.”

If he had lived, I believe he would have done all these things. But his life was cut short.