Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/889

* C-ffiSALPINIA. 783 CJESAR. longs to warm climates. The genus Caesalpinia contains about fifty species of trees and shrubs with pinnate or bipinnate leaves, handsome pur- ple or yellow (lowers in racemes, natives of the warm parts of Asia and America, which yield the brazilwood, Pernambuco-wood, and sapan- wood (q.v.) of commerce, also the astringent pods called dividivi (q.v.), used in tanning. Some of the species are highly ornamental, as the royal poinciana {Ccesalpinia regia or Poin- ciana renin) and the dwarf poinciana (Ccesal- pinia ptilchcrrima. CfflSAXPINTTS, sgs'al-pi'nus. See Cesai- PINO. Cffi'SAR. The cognomen of the most re- nowned branch of the patrician (lens Julia, which claimed descent from the mythical lulus, son of jEneas. The earliest mentioned in history is Sextus Julius Caesar, who held the office of prajtor in B.C. 208. The great Ciesar (see below) left no direct male descendant to bear his name, but by his adoption of Octavius (afterwards the Emperor Augustus ) the name passed to him, and from Augustiis, also by adoption, to his imme- diate successors Tiberius and Caliguki. Claudius and Xero, though not Julii, continued the name, which died out as a family name when Nero was killed. Henceforth it became a title of the reigning emperor; Vitellius alone reftised to ac- cept it. From Trajan's reign it stands regularly after the name 'emperor'; imperator Cwsar. Later the title Ccesar was used to designate espe- cially the heir presumptive to the throne, though it did not cease to be part of the imperial title. From it are derived the titles of the Russian Czar and the German Kaiser. C-ffiSAR, Don-. In Mrs. Cowley's Bold Hiroke for a Uushand, Olivia's father, an old man who makes loves to a young girl, in order to lead his daughter to marry. CiESAR, Gaius Jruus (b.c.100-b.c.44). A famous Roman general, statesman, and writer; one of the most remarkable men of all time. He was the son of a Roman prsetor of the same name, and was bom July 12, B.C. 100. Two cir- cumstances conspired to determine his sym- pathies in favor of democracy, and against a republican oligarchy. The first was the marriage of his aunt .Julia with Gaius Marius; the sec- end, the marriage of Caesar himself, in B.C. 83, with Cornelia, daughter of L. Cinna, one of the principal enemies of Sulla. The anger of the dictator at this cost C-esar his rank, property, and almost his life itself. Feeling that he would be safer abroad for a time, he went to Asia (B.C. 81); but on learning of the death of Sulla (B.C. 78), he hurried back to Rome, where he found the popular party in a state of great ferment, and anxious to regain what it had lost under the vigorous despotism of the aristocratic dictator. Ca?sar, however, took no ])art in the attempts of Lepidus to overthrow the oligarchy; but he showed his political lean-, ings by prosecuting (n.c. 77) Cn. Dulabella — a great partisan of Sulla — for extortion in his Province of Macedonia. To improve his elo- quence, he went to Rhodes to study under the rhetor Apollonius Molo. In B.C. 74 he returned to Rome, where he had been elected pontifex, and now for the first time threw himself ear- nestly into public life. In the year B.C. 70 he attached himself to Pompeius, whose political actions at this time were of a decidedly demo- cratic character. In B.C. 68 Caesar obtained a quaestorship in Spain. On his return to Rome (B.C. 67) he married Pompeia, a relative of Pompeius, with whom he was daily becoming more intimate. In B.C. 65 he was elected to the eurule aedileship, and lavished vast sums of money on games and public buildings, by which he increased his already great popularity. For the next few years Cicsar is found steadily skir- mishing on the popular side. In B.C. 03 he was elected Pontifex Maxinuis, and shortly after praetor. During the same year occurred the fa- mous debate on the Catiline conspiracy, in which the aristocratic party vainly endeavored to per- suade the consul, Cicero, to include Caesar in the list of conspirators. In B.C. 62 Pompeius re- turned from the East, and disbanded his army. Next jear Ciesar obtained, as propraetor, the Province of Hispania Ulterior. His career in Spain was brilliant and decisive. On his return he was elected consul, along with !M. Calpumius Bibulus (B.C. GO). Ca>sar, with rare tact and sagacity, reconciled the two most powerful men in Rome, who were then at variance — Pompeius and Crassus — and formed an alliance with them, known in history as the First Triumvirate { B.C. 60 ) . Both of these distinguished men aided Caesar in carrying his Agrarian Law (B.C. 59) ; and to strengthen still further the union which had been formed, Caesar gave Pompeius his daughter, Julia, in marriage, though she had been promised to M. Brutus ; while he himself married Calpurnia, daughter of L. Piso, his successor in the consulship. On the expiration of his term of office, he obtained for himself, by the popular vote, the Province of Gallia Cisal- ]iina and lllyricum for five years, to which the Senate added — to prevent the popular assembly from doing so — the Province of Gallia Transal- pina. Nothing could have been more favorable to Cresar's aims. He had now an opportunity of developing his extraordinary military genius, and of gathering round him an amiy of veterans, whom perpetual victory should inspire with thorough soldierly fidelity and devotion to his person. This was the very thing he wanted to give him a reputation equal to that of his coad- jutors, Pompeius and Crassus, whom, in genius, he far surpassed. Leaving, therefore, the polit- ical factions at Rome to exhaust themselves in petty strifes, Csesar, in B.C. 58, after the banish- uicnt of Cicero, repaired to his provinces, and during the ne.xt nine years conducted those splendid campaigns in Gaul by which, had he done nothing else, he would have "btiilt himself an everlasting name." Caesars fir.st campaign was against the Uelvetii, who were migrating from Switzerland into Gaul, and whom he totally defeated near Bibracte (Mont-Beuvray, near Au- tun). Out of 368,000 men, women, and chil- dren, only 110,000 remained. These were com- mandi'd by Ca'sar to return home and cultivate their lands. The eyes of the Gauls were now turned upon the new conqueror, whose aid was solicited against an invader from beyond the Rhine, the German chief Ariovistus. (jiesar ad- vanced against Ariovistvis, who was utterly over- thrown. And now Caesar, having in the course of one campaign successfully concluded two im- portant wars, led his troops into winter quarters. Next year (B.C. 57) occurred the Belgic War, in which CiCsar successively routed the Suessionea,