History of Julius Caesar Vol. 2 of 2

Pompey believed, or pretended to believe, that there was a conspiracy against his life. He would no longer attend the Senate, unless the session were held close to his residence, he seemed to think it so dangerous to pass through the town.[625 - Cicero, Epist. ad Quintum, II. 3.] “Clodius,” he said, “seeks to assassinate me. Crassus pays him, and Cato encourages him. All the talkers, Curio, Bibulus, all my enemies excite him against me. The populace, who love the tattle of the tribune, have almost abandoned me; the nobility is hostile to me; the Senate is unjust towards me; the youth is entirely perverted.” He added that he would take his precautions, and that he would surround himself with people from the country.[626 - These words are reported by Cicero (Epist. ad Quintum, II. 3), to whom they were addressed by Pompey. Dio Cassius, contrary to all probability, pretends that Pompey, from this moment, was irritated against Cæsar, and sought to deprive him of his province. There is no proof of such an allegation. The interview at Lucca, which took place this same year, offers a formal contradiction to it.]

Nobody was safe from the most odious imputations. Caius Cato accused the Consul P. Lentulus of having assisted Ptolemy with the means of quitting Rome clandestinely.[627 - See Nonius Marcellus (edit. Gerlach and Roth, p. 261), who quotes a passage from Book XXII. of the Annals of Fenestella, who wrote under Augustus or Tiberius.] M. Cato was exasperated against everybody. Lastly, an implacable party never ceased manifesting, by its motions, without result, it is true, its rancour and animosity against the proconsul of Gaul. Towards the spring of 698, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, the brother-in-law of Cato, whose sister Porcia he had espoused, and who had enriched himself with the spoils of the victims of Sylla, proposed to deprive him of his command.[628 - Suetonius, Cæsar, 24.] Others renewed the proposal to put an end to the distribution of the lands of the Campania, and revived the opposition to the Julian laws.[629 - Cicero, Epist. ad Quintum, II. 5.] But Cicero, at the request of Pompey, obtained the adjournment of this question to the month of May.[630 - Cicero, Epist. Familiar., I. 9.] He was, indeed, himself perplexed on this question, and confessed that he had no very clear views upon it.[631 - “The question of the lands of Campania, which ought to have been settled on the day of the Ides and the day following, is not yet decided. I have much difficulty in making up my mind on this question.” (Cicero, Epist. ad Quintum, II. 8.) (April, 698.)]

The Interview at Lucca.

V. In the midst of the general confusion, many citizens turned their eyes towards Cæsar. Appius Claudius had already paid him a visit.[632 - “Appius is not yet returned from his visit to Cæsar.” (Cicero, Epist. ad Quintum, II. 6.) (April, 698.)] Crassus left Rome suddenly to join him at Ravenna, at the beginning of the spring of 698, before the campaign against the Veneti, and explain to him the state of affairs, for, as Cicero says in a letter of a subsequent date, there was no occurrence so small in Rome that Cæsar was not informed of it.[633 - “Knowing well that small news as well as great news have reached Cæsar.” (Epist. ad Quintum, III. i. 3.)]

Some time afterwards, Pompey, who was to embark at Pisa, to proceed to Sardinia, in order to hasten the supply of wheat, arrived at Lucca, where he had an interview with Cæsar and Crassus. A crowd of people assembled similarly in that town; some were drawn thither by the prestige of Cæsar’s glory, others by his well-known generosity, all by the vague instinct which, in moments of crisis, points to the place where strength exists, and gives a presentiment of the side from which safety is to come. The Roman people sent him a deputation of senators.[634 - Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 25.] All the most illustrious and powerful personages in Rome, such as Pompey, Crassus, Appius, governor of Sardinia, Nepos, proconsul of Spain,[635 - Plutarch, Cæsar, 24.] came to show their warm admiration for him and invoke his support;[636 - “Appius, he says, has visited Cæsar, in order to wrest from him some nominations of tribunes.” (Cicero, Epist. ad Quintum, II. 15.)] even women repaired to Lucca, and the concourse was so great that as many as 200 senators were seen there at a time; 120 lictors, the obligatory escort of the first magistrates,[637 - Appian, Civil Wars, II. 17. – The consuls and proconsuls had twelve lictors, the prætors six, the dictators twenty-four, and the master of the cavalry a number which varied. The curule ædiles, the quæstors, and the tribunes of the people, not having the imperium, had no lictors. As, at the time of the conference of Lucca, there was no dictator or master of cavalry, the number of 120 fasces can only apply to the collective escort of proconsuls and prætors. It is not probable that the two consuls then in office at Rome should have gone to Lucca. On the other hand, the proconsuls were prohibited from quitting their provinces as long as they were in the exercise of their commands. (see Titus Livius, XLI. 7; XLIII. 1.) But as the conferences of Lucca took place just at the epoch when the proconsuls and proprætors were starting for their provinces (we know from Cicero, Epist. ad Atticum, III. 9, that this departure took place in the months of April and May), it is probable that the newly-named proconsuls and proprætors repaired to Lucca before they went to take possession of their commands. Thus the number of 120 fasces would represent the collective number of the lictors of proprætors or proconsuls who could pass through Lucca before embarking either at Pisa, or Adria, or at Ravenna.On this hypothesis, we should have the following numbers: —Plutarch (Pompey, 53) says in so many words that there were seen every day at his door 120 fasces of proconsuls and prætors.] besieged the door of the proconsul. “Already,” Appius writes, “he disposed of everything by his ascendance, by his riches, and by the affectionate eagerness with which he conferred obligations upon everybody.”[638 - Appian, Civil Wars, II. 17.]

What took place in this interview? No one knows; but we may conjecture from the events which were the immediate consequences of it. It is evident, in the first place, that Crassus and Pompey, who had recently quarrelled, were reconciled by Cæsar, who, no doubt, placed before their eyes the arguments most calculated to reconcile them: “The public interest required it; they alone could put an end to the state of anarchy which afflicted the capital; in a country which was a prey to vulgar ambitions, it required, to control them, ambitions which were greater, but, at the same time, purer and more honourable; they must easily have seen that it was not in the power of a man like Cicero, with his tergiversations, his cowardice, and his vanity, or Cato, with his stoicism, belonging to another age, or Domitius Ahenobarbus, with his implacable hatred and his selfish passions, to restore order, or put an end to the divisions of opinion. In order to obtain these results, it was necessary that Crassus and Pompey should labour resolutely to obtain the consulship.[639 - See Suetonius, Cæsar, 24. – The proof that this plan originated with Cæsar is found in the fact that Pompey and Crassus had not previously taken any steps to ensure their election.] As to himself, he only asked to remain at the head of his army, and complete the conquest he had undertaken. Gaul was vanquished, but not subjugated. Some years were still necessary to establish there the Roman domination. This fickle and warlike people, always ready for revolt, was secretly incited and openly supported by two neighbouring nations, the Britons and the Germans. In the last war against the Belgæ, the promoters of the rising, according to the confession of the Bellovaci, had clearly shown, by taking refuge in Britain after their defeat, whence came the provocation. Even at this very moment, the insurrection which was in preparation among the tribes of the Veneti, on the shores of the ocean, was instigated by these same islanders. As to the Germans, the defeat of Ariovistus had not discouraged them; and several contingents of that nation were lately found with the troops of Hainault. He intends to chastise these two peoples, and to carry his arms beyond the Rhine as well as beyond the sea; let them, then, leave him to finish his enterprise. Already the Alps are levelled; the barbarians, who, hardly forty-four years ago, were ravaging Italy, are driven back into their deserts and forests. A few years more, and fear or hope, punishments or recompenses, arms or laws, will have bound for ever Gaul to the empire.”[640 - We have put into the mouth of Cæsar the following words of Cicero: “In giving the Alps as a boundary to Italy, Nature had not done it without a special intention of the gods. If the entrance had been open to the ferocity and the multitude of the Gauls, this town would never have been the seat and centre of a great empire. These lofty mountains may now level themselves; there is now nothing, from the Alps to the ocean, which Italy has to fear. One or two campaigns more, and fear or hope, punishments or recompenses, arms or the laws, will reduce all Gaul into subjection to us, and attach her to us by everlasting ties.” (Cicero, Orat. de Provinciis Consularibus, 14.]

Language like this could not fail to be understood by Pompey and by Crassus. People are easily persuaded when the public interest offers itself through the prism of self-love and personal interest. Beyond the consulship, Crassus and Pompey saw at once the government of provinces and the command of armies. As to Cæsar, the logical realisation of his desires was the prolongation of his powers. Only one difficulty lay in the way of the execution of this plan. The period of the elections was near at hand, and neither Pompey nor Crassus had taken steps to offer themselves as candidates for the consulship within the time fixed by the law; but it had been so usual for many years to delay the comitia, under frivolous pretexts, that the same thing might easily be done on the present occasion with a more legitimate object.

Cæsar promised to support their election with all his power, by his recommendations, and by sending his soldiers on leave to vote in the comitia. In fact, his soldiers, either recruited from the veterans whom he had carried from Rome, or among Roman citizens established in great numbers in Cisalpine Gaul, had the right to give their vote in Rome, and enjoy the legitimate influence which is the reward of a life of dangers and self-denial. Cicero assures us of this in these words: “Do you consider, in seeking the consulship, as a weak support the will of the soldiers, so powerful by their number and by the influence which they exercise in their families? Moreover, what authority must the vote of our warriors have over the whole Roman people in the question of nominating a consul! For, in the consular comitia, it is the generals they choose, and not the rhetoricians. It is a very powerful recommendation to be able to say, I was wounded, he has restored me to life; he shared the booty with me. It was under him that we captured the enemy’s camp, that we gave battle; he never required from the soldier more labour than he took upon himself; his success is as great as his courage. Can you imagine what a favourable influence such discourses have upon people’s minds?”[641 - Cicero, Orat. pro Muræna, 18.] Thus Cæsar conformed to the established practice, in allowing his soldiers to exercise their rights of citizens.

Consequences of the interview at Lucca. Conduct of Cicero.

VI. The result of the interview at Lucca had been to unite in a common feeling the most important men in the Republic. Some historians have seen in it a mysterious conspiracy, and they have not hesitated to qualify it with the name of triumvirate, a denomination as inapplicable to this agreement as to that which took place in 694. An interview in the midst of so many illustrious citizens, who have assembled from all sides to salute a victorious general, had hardly the appearance of a mystery, and the mutual understanding of some men of influence in the same political thought was not a conspiracy. Some authors have, nevertheless, pretended that the Senate, informed of this plot devised in Cisalpine Gaul, had expressed its indignation; but there is nothing to support this allegation; if it had been the case, would they, a few months after the interview at Lucca, have granted Cæsar everything he desired, and rejected everything that was displeasing to him? We see, indeed, that at the annual distribution of the governments of provinces, the senators hostile to Cæsar proposed that he should be deprived of his command, or, at least, of the part of his command decreed by the Senate.[642 - Orat. de Provinciis Consularibus, 15.] Yet, not only was this proposal rejected, but the Senate gave him ten lieutenants and subsidies to pay the legions he had raised on his own authority, in addition to the four legions originally placed at his disposal by the Senate. In fact, the triumphs of Cæsar had excited people’s minds. Public opinion, that irresistible force in all times, had declared loudly for him, and his popularity reflected upon Pompey and Crassus.[643 - “Evidently all opposition to these great men, especially since the brilliant successes of Cæsar, was contrary to the general feeling, and unanimously rejected.” (Cicero, Epist. Familiar., I. 9.)] The Senate had then silenced its animosity, and even Cæsar showed himself full of deference for that assembly.[644 - “Cæsar, strengthened by his successes, and by the recompenses, honours, and testimonials with which the Senate had loaded him, had just lent to this illustrious order his glory and his influence.” (Cicero, Epist. Familiar., I. 9.)]

It must be said, in praise of humanity, that true glory possesses the privilege of rallying all generous hearts; only men who are madly in love with themselves, or hardened by party fanaticism, can resist this general attraction towards those who constitute the greatness of their country. At this period, with the exception of a few spiteful and intractable individuals, the greater part of the senators felt the general impulse, as we learn from the orations of Cicero.[645 - “Why should I wait to be reconciled with Cæsar? Has this reconcilement not been effected already by the Senate? the Senate, the supreme council of the Republic, my rule and my guide in all my opinions. I walk in your steps, senators, I obey your counsels, I yield to your authority… So long as the political measures of Cæsar have not had your approbation, you did not see me allied with him. When his exploits had changed your feelings and dispositions, you have seen me not only agree in your decisions, but loudly applaud them.” (Cicero, Orat. de Provinciis Consularibus, 10.)]

But if, on one side, the members of this pretended triumvirate are represented as closely leagued together against the Republic, on the other, Dio Cassius asserts that, at this time, Pompey and Crassus were conspiring against Cæsar. This opinion has no better foundation. We see, on the contrary, by a letter of Cicero, how warmly Pompey at that time advocated the party of his father-in-law. Pompey, when he was leaving Lucca, met with Quintus Cicero, and, addressing him with warmth, he bade him remind his brother of his past engagements: “Cicero ought not to forget that what Pompey had done for his recall was also the work of Cæsar, whose acts he had promised not to attack; if he would not serve him, at least let him abstain from all hostility.”[646 - Epist. Familiar., I. 9.] These reproaches did not remain without effect. Cicero, very apt to turn to the side of fortune, wrote to Atticus: “There is an end to everything; and since those who are without power will have me no longer, I will seek friends among those who have the power.”[647 - Epist. ad Atticum, IV. 5.]

He had already acted with the senators in voting thanks for Cæsar’s victories, since which he had employed all his efforts in seconding every proposal in favour of the conqueror of Gaul. As the part Cicero acted on this occasion has had a particular importance, it will not be uninteresting to quote his words: “Could I be the enemy of a man whose couriers and letters, in concert with his renown, make our ears listen every day to the names of so many peoples, of so many nations, of so many countries which he has added to our empire? I am inflamed with enthusiasm, senators, and you are the less inclined to doubt it, since you are animated by the same sentiments.[648 - Cicero, Orat. de Prov. Consularibus, 9. (August, A.U.C. 698.)] He has combated, with the greatest success, the most warlike and powerful nations of the Germans and Helvetii; he has overthrown, subdued, and driven back the others, and has accustomed them to obey the Roman people. Countries, which no history, no relation, no public report had hitherto brought to our knowledge, have been overrun by our general, our troops, our arms. We had formerly but one way into Gaul; the other parts were occupied by peoples who were either enemies of this empire, or little to be trusted, or unknown, or at least ferocious, barbarous, and warlike; there was no one who was not desirous of seeing them vanquished and subdued.[649 - Cicero, Orat. de Prov. Consularibus, 13. (August, A.U.C. 698.)] A report has been recently presented to us on the pay of the troops. I was not satisfied with giving my opinion, but I laboured to secure its adoption; I replied at great length to those who held a contrary opinion; I assisted in drawing up the decree; then, again, I granted more to the person than to I know not what necessity. I thought that, even without such a succour of money, with the mere produce of the booty, Cæsar might have maintained his army and terminated the war; but I did not consider that we ought, by a narrow parsimony, to diminish the lustre and glory of his triumph.

“Moreover, there has been a question of giving Cæsar ten lieutenants: some absolutely opposed the grant, others required precedents; these would have put off the consideration to another day; those granted it, without employing flattering terms. Under these circumstances, from the manner in which I spoke, everybody understood that, while I sought to serve the interests of the Republic, I did still more to honour Cæsar.”

In another speech, the same orator exclaims: “The Senate has decreed Cæsar public prayers in the most honourable form, and for a number of days hitherto without example. In spite of the exhausted state of the treasury, it has provided for the pay of his victorious army; it has decided that ten lieutenants shall be given to the general, and that, by derogation of the law Sempronia, a successor should not be sent him. It was I who moved these measures, and who spoke in support of them; and, rather than listen to my old disagreement with Cæsar, I lent myself to what is demanded, under present circumstances, by the interest of the Republic and the need of peace.”[650 - Cicero, Orat. pro Balbo, 27.]

But if in public Cicero expressed himself with so much clearness, in his private intercourse he was still tender of the opinion of his former friends. It is, indeed, the only manner in which we can explain a contradiction too glaring even in a temper so inconstant. In fact, at the moment when he was boasting openly of the services he had assisted in rendering to Cæsar, he wrote to his friend P. Lentulus, proconsul in Cilicia: “They have just granted Cæsar subsidies and ten lieutenants, and they have paid no regard to the law Sempronia, which required that a successor should be given to him. But it is too sorrowful a subject, and I will not dwell upon it.”[651 - Cicero, Epist. Familiar., I. 7.]

Intrigues of Pompey and Crassus to obtain the Consulship.

VII. From what precedes, it is evident that unpopularity did not fall upon Cæsar, but upon the means employed by Crassus and Pompey for the purpose of obtaining the consulship.

They made use of Caius Cato, kinsman of the Stoic, and of other men equally undeserving of esteem, to cause delay in the time of holding the comitia, and thus lead to the creation of an interrex,[652 - Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 27.] which would facilitate their election, since the consuls, who were the ordinary presidents of the assembly of the people, were opposed to them.

The relations of the events of this period present great confusion. Dio Cassius informs us that, in the sequel of violent disputes in the curia, between Pompey, who had recently returned from Sardinia, and the Consul Marcellinus, the Senate, in sign of its displeasure, decreed that it would go into mourning, as for a public calamity, and immediately carried the decree into effect. Caius Cato opposed his veto. Then the Consul Cn. Marcellinus, at the head of the Senate, proceeded to the Forum, and harangued the people to ask it for the comitia, without success probably, since the senators returned immediately to the place of their session. Clodius, who, since the conference of Lucca, had become more intimate with Pompey, appeared suddenly among the crowd, interrupted the consul, and bantered him on this display of untimely mourning. In the public place Clodius would easily carry the approval of the multitude; but when he attempted to return to the Senate, he encountered the most resolute opposition. The senators rushed to meet him and prevent him from entering; many of the knights assailed him with insults; they would have treated him still worse, had not the populace rushed to his aid and delivered him, threatening to commit to the flames the entire assembly.[653 - Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 29.]

On another hand, Pompey, with more authority and less violence, protested against the last senatus-consultus. Lentulus Marcellinus, addressing him in full Senate, demanded if it were true, as reported, that he aimed at the consulship. “As yet I know not what I shall do,” replied Pompey, roughly. Then, perceiving the bad impression caused by these disdainful words, he added immediately, “For the good citizens, there is no use in my being consul; against the factious, perhaps I am necessary.”[654 - Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 30. – Plutarch, Pompey, 53; Crassus, 18.] To a similar question, Crassus replied, modestly, “that he was ready to do whatever would be useful to the Republic.” Then Lentulus bursting into reproaches against Pompey’s ambition, the latter interrupted him insolently. “Remember,” he said, “that thou art indebted to me for everything. Thou wast dumb, I made thee a talker; thou wast a greedy beggar, I turned thee into a glutton, who vomits to eat again.” This language will give an idea of the violence of political passions at that period. The senators, and Marcellinus himself, seeing that they could not contend against the influence of these two men, withdrew. During the rest of the year they took no part in public affairs; they confined themselves to wearing mourning, and absenting themselves from the festivals of the people.

Campaign against the Peoples on the Shores of the Ocean.

VII. While Pompey and Crassus, in accord with the convention of Lucca, employed all the means in their power to arrive at the consulship, Cæsar had his regards still fixed on a conquest which every year seemed achieved, yet every year it had to be commenced again. If the Gauls, divided into so many different peoples, were incapable of uniting for their common defence, they did not allow themselves to be discouraged by a single misfortune. Hardly were they crushed on one point, when the standard of insurrection was raised somewhere else.

In 698, the agitation showed itself first along the shores of the ocean, from the Loire to the Seine. The peoples of the Morbihan, masters of a considerable fleet, and possessing the exterior trade, placed themselves at the head of the movement. They entered into alliance with all the peoples who dwelt on the coasts between the Loire and the Scheldt, and sent for assistance from England, with which country they were in constant relation. Under these circumstances, Cæsar foresaw that it was on the sea that he must curb the spirit of these maritime peoples. He gave orders for the building of ships on the Loire, demanded others from the peoples of the Charente and the Gironde, and sent from Italy Decimus Brutus with galleys and sailors. As soon as the season permitted, he repaired in person to the neighbourhood of Nantes, not far from Angers, where Publius Crassus was in winter quarters with the 7th legion. From the moment of his arrival his attention extended over the vast territory where he was to establish the domination of Rome. With this aim, he distributed his troops as follows: Labienus is sent with the cavalry to the east, in the direction of Trèves, to hold the Germans in check; on his way, he will confirm the fidelity of the people of Champagne and their neighbours; P. Crassus is sent towards Aquitaine, to subdue that country; Sabinus towards Normandy, to combat the insurgents of the Cotentin; Cæsar reserves for himself the operations in the Morbihan. After besieging, not without great difficulties, several small fortresses which, placed at the extremity of promontories, were surrounded with water at high tide, he resolved to wait for his fleet, and took a position on the coast, at Saint-Gildas, to the south of Vannes. Decimus Brutus led his vessels out of the Loire, encountered the enemy in sight of the Roman army, and, by a concurrence of fortunate circumstances, destroyed the Gaulish fleet; the flower of Brittany perished in the combat. The Morbihan and the neighbouring states submitted, and, nevertheless, the conqueror put to death all the principal citizens.

Cæsar’s conduct towards the inhabitants of this province has been justly blamed by the Emperor Napoleon I. “These people,” he says, “had not revolted; they had furnished hostages, and had promised to live peaceably; but they were in possession of all their liberty and all their rights. They had given Cæsar cause to make war upon them, no doubt, but not to violate international law in regard to them, and to commit so atrocious an abuse of victory. This conduct was not just, and it was still less politic. Such means never answer their object, they exasperate and revolt nations. The punishment of particular chiefs is all that justice and policy permit.”[655 - Précis des Guerres de César, III. 5.]

While Brittany was vanquished on the sea, Sabinus gained a decisive victory over the peoples of Normandy, near Avranches; and, at the same time, Publius Crassus reduced Aquitaine. Although this young lieutenant of Cæsar had only a single legion, a corps of cavalry, and some auxiliaries, he gained possession of the strong fortress of Sos, and inflicted a sanguinary defeat on the peoples situated between the Garonne and the Adour. His glory was the greater, as the Aquitanians had called to their assistance the Spanish chiefs, the wreck of that famous army which Sertorius had so long formed on the model of the Roman tactics.

Although the season was far advanced, Cæsar still resolved to subjugate the peoples of Brabant and the Boulonnais, and marched against them. The Gauls retired into their forests; he was then obliged to clear a road in the woods by cutting down the trees, which, placed to the right and left, formed on each side a rampart against the enemy. The bad state of the weather obliged him to retire before he had completed his task.

In this campaign of 698, most of the countries which extend from the mouth of the Adour to that of the Scheldt had felt the weight of the Roman arms. The sea was free; Cæsar was at liberty to attempt a descent upon England.

CHAPTER IV.

EVENTS OF THE YEAR 699

Campaign against the Usipetes and the Tencteri.

I. THE successes of the preceding campaign, and the existence of a Roman fleet in the waters of the Morbihan, must have given Cæsar the hope that nothing henceforth would prevent an expedition against Great Britain; yet new events came to delay his projects.

In the winter between 698 and 699, the Usipetes and the Tencteri, peoples of German origin, to escape the oppression of the Suevi, passed the Rhine not far from its mouth, towards Xanten and Clèves. They numbered 400,000, of all ages and both sexes; they sought new lands to settle in, and, in the spring of 699, the head of the emigration had already reached the country where now stand Aix-la-Chapelle and Liége. Cæsar, alarmed at this event, starts for the army sooner than usual, proceeds to Amiens, there assembles his troops, and finds the Gaulish chiefs profoundly shaken in their fidelity by the approach of these new barbarians, whose co-operation they hope to obtain. He confirms their feeling of duty, obtains a contingent of cavalry, marches to encounter the Usipetes and the Tencteri, and arrives on the Meuse, which he crosses at Maëstricht. These latter, on hearing of the approach of the Roman army, had concentrated in Southern Gueldres. Established on the river Niers, in the plains of Goch, they send a deputation to Cæsar, who had arrived near Venloo, to ask him not to attack them, but to allow them to keep the lands they had conquered. The Roman general refuses, and continues his march. After new conferences, the object of which, on the part of the Germans, was to give their cavalry, sent beyond the Meuse, time to return, a truce of one day is accepted. Cæsar declares, nevertheless, that he will advance to Niers. Suddenly, however, his vanguard is treacherously attacked in its march and routed by the German cavalry; he then believes himself freed from his engagements; and when next day the deputies come to excuse this perfidious aggression, he has them arrested, falls unexpectedly on the camp of the Germans, and pursues them without remission to the confluence of the Rhine and the Meuse (towards the place occupied now by Fort Saint-André), where these unfortunate people nearly all perish.

In the sequel of this exploit, which brought him little glory, and in which doubt has been thrown on his good faith, Cæsar resolved to cross the Rhine, on the pretence of claiming from the Sicambri the cavalry of the Usipetes and the Tencteri, who had taken refuge among them, but, in reality, to intimidate the Germans, and make them abandon the practice of seconding the insurrections in Gaul. He therefore proceeded up the valley of the Rhine, and arrived at Bonn, opposite the territory of the Ubii, a people which had already solicited his alliance and support against the Suevi. He caused to be built in ten days a bridge of piles, which he crossed with his troops, but he did not penetrate far into Germany: unable to come up with either the Sicambri or the Suevi, who had withdrawn into the interior of their country, he re-crossed to the left bank, and caused the bridge to be broken.

First Descent in England.

II. Though the summer was already advanced, Cæsar determined to take advantage of the time which still remained to pass into England and visit that island, concerning which people had but confused notions, and which was only known to the Romans by the intervention of the islanders in all the wars in Gaul. He therefore started from Bonn, travelled towards Boulogne, marking out, as we might say, the road which subsequently Augustus ordered to be constructed between those two towns, and collected in that port the ships of the neighbouring coasts and the fleet which, the year before, had vanquished that of the Morbihan. After sending one of his officers to assure himself of the point of landing, he started from Boulogne, in the night of the 24th to the 25th of August, with two legions, reconnoitred in his turn the coast of Dover, and landed at Deal. The shore was covered with armed men, who offered a vigorous opposition to the landing of the Roman army, which, having repulsed them, established itself on land near the sea. The Britons, astonished at such boldness, came from all sides to implore peace and make their submission. But the elements conspired against the invaders, and a dreadful tempest destroyed the transport ships and galleys. At the news of this disaster, the Britons raised their heads again; on their side the Roman soldiers, far from desponding, hastened to repair their ships with so much zeal that, out of eighty, sixty-eight were made fit for sea again. Not far from Cæsar’s camp, the Britons one day drew a legion into an ambuscade; this led to a general battle, in which the Romans were victorious. Then Cæsar, hurried by the approach of the equinox, treated with the chiefs of some tribes, received hostages, and crossed again to the continent on the 12th of September, having remained eighteen days only in England. On the day after his arrival at Boulogne, the two legions he brought with him were dispatched against the people of the territory of Boulogne, who had taken refuge, since the preceding year, in the marshes of their country; other troops were sent to chastise the inhabitants of Brabant. After these expeditions, Cæsar placed his legions in winter quarters among the Belgæ, and then departed to visit the opposite part of his vast command, namely, Illyria, where also he had to protect the Roman frontiers against the incursion of the barbarians.

Cæsar’s Habits when in Campaign.

We are astonished, in reading the “Commentaries”, at the ease with which Cæsar repaired every year from Gaul into Italy, or into Illyria. There must have been relays established on the principal lines along which he had to travel, not only for his own use, but also for the couriers who carried dispatches. We have seen that, in 696, Cæsar passed in eight days from the banks of the Tiber to Geneva. According to Suetonius, he travelled 100 miles a day, or 150 kilometres in twenty-four hours, which makes a little more than six kilometres an hour. The couriers took twenty-eight or thirty days to go from England to Rome. Plutarch informs us that, in order to lose no time, Cæsar travelled by night, sleeping in a chariot or litter.[656 - Plutarch, Cæsar, 18.] By day he had with him a secretary, who wrote under his dictation, and he was followed by a soldier who carried his sword. In his military marches he went sometimes on horseback, but most frequently he preceded the soldiers on foot, and, with head uncovered, he gave no care either to sun or rain.[657 - Suetonius, Cæsar, 57.]

In the midst of the most perilous enterprises, he found time to correspond with men of influence, and even to read poems which Cicero sent him, to whom he sent back his opinions and criticisms;[658 - “What does Cæsar think of my poem, I pray? He has written to me that he had read the first book, and that he had seen nothing, even in Greek, which ever pleased him more. The rest, up to a certain passage, is less finished: that is his expression. Tell me what it is that displeases him, the matter or the form, and fear not to speak candidly”. (Cicero, Ep. ad Quint., II. 16.)] his mind was incessantly occupied with the events which were passing in Rome.

Consulship of Pompey and Crassus.

IV. At the beginning of the year 699, the consuls were not yet nominated. In such circumstances, the Senate appointed interreges, who, invested with the consular powers, succeeded each other in office every five days. It was by favour of this interregnum that the comitia were held. The result was foreseen. Besides their immense clientelle, Pompey and Crassus were assured of the support of Cæsar, who, as we have said, had taken care to send on leave a great number of his legionaries to vote.[659 - Plutarch, Crassus, 16. – Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 31.] They arrived in charge of Publius Crassus, son of the triumvir, whose exploits in Aquitaine had given him celebrity.

The only candidate of the previous year, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, excited by Cato, his brother-in-law, persisted in his candidature to the last moment. Starting before daybreak to the comitia, with M.Cato and many of his clients, he and his followers were exposed to violent attacks. The slave who walked before him with a lantern in his hand was killed, and Cato wounded. Domitius was seized with terror, and sought shelter in his house. The interrex who presided over the comitia proclaimed, without opposition, Crassus and Pompey consuls.

The arrangements concluded at Lucca had thus succeeded, and the ambition of the three eminent personages who absorbed public attention was satisfied; but the aim of this ambition varied according to their several tempers. Crassus only desired the command of an army, in order to increase his reputation and his immense riches. Pompey, without deep convictions, placed his vanity in being the first man of the Republic. Cæsar, the head of the popular party, aspired to power, in order, above all other considerations, to ensure the triumph of his cause. The way which would offer itself to his mind was not to excite civil war, but to obtain his own nomination several times to the consulship; the great citizens who had preceded him had followed no other way, and the there is a natural tendency to take for our example that which has been successful in the past. The glory acquired in Gaul assured Cæsar beforehand of the public favour, which was to carry him again to the first magistracy. Nevertheless, to dispel the obstacles continually raised by a powerful party, it was necessary to remove hostile competitors from important offices; to gain the support of distinguished men, such as Cicero; and, as everything was venal, to buy, with the produce of the booty he made by war, the consciences which were for sale. This course, seconded by Pompey and Crassus, promised success.

Pompey, always under the influence of his wife’s charms, appeared to rest satisfied with the part which was assigned to him. Had he been free from all engagement, and obeyed his own instincts, he would have embraced the cause of the Senate rather than that which he was sustaining; for men of a nature so vain as his, prefer the flattering adherence of the aristocracy in the middle of which they live, to the expression of the approbation of the people, which rarely reaches their ears. Dragged on by the force of circumstances, he was obliged to wrestle against those who stood in his way; and the more the opposition showed itself ardent, the more he gave way to the violence of his temper. Legality, moreover, was observed by nobody, as the following incident proves. Cato aspired to the prætorship. On the day of the comitia, the first century, to which the epithet of prœrogativæ was given, and the suffrage of which exercised a great influence over the others, voted for him. Pompey, not doubting the same result from the other centuries, declared suddenly that he heard a clap of thunder,[660 - Plutarch, Cato, 48; Pompey, 54.] and dismissed the assembly. Some days afterwards, by purchasing votes and employing all the means of intimidation at their disposal, the new consuls caused P. Vatinius, the author of the motion which, in 695, procured for Cæsar the government of the Cisalpine province, to be elected prætor, in the place of M. Cato.[661 - Cicero, Epist. Familiar., I. 9.] Most of the other magistrates were similarly chosen among their creatures, and there were only two tribunes of the people, C. Ateius Capito and P. Aquilius Gallus, to represent the opposition. All these elections were conducted with a certain degree of order, troubled only once in the comitia for the ædileship. A battle took place in the Campus Martius, in which there were killed and wounded. Pompey rushed into the middle of the riot to appease it, and had his toga covered with blood. His slaves took it to his house to bring another. At the view of this blood, Julia, who was in an advanced state of pregnancy, believed that her husband had been slain, and suffered a miscarriage. This accident injured her health, but was not, as has been stated, the cause of her death, which occurred only in the year following.[662 - Plutarch, Pompey, 55.]

Motion of Trebonius on the Government of the Provinces.

V. There was no further resistance to the two consuls. The factions appeared to be vanquished. Cicero himself and Clodius became reconciled, and, through the mediation of Pompey and Crassus, promised reciprocal concessions.[663 - Cicero, Epist. ad Quintum, II. 9.] The moment had arrived for presenting the law which was to give provinces and armies to the two first magistrates of the Republic: the latter wished the motion to come from a tribune of the people, and they had entrusted it to C. Trebonius, who was subsequently one of Cæsar’s lieutenants. The Senate had not proceeded to the distribution of provinces before the consular elections, as the law required. Trebonius, following the example given a few years before, in the case of the government of Gaul, addressed the people, and took the initiative of the two motions, one relating to Pompey and Crassus, the other to Cæsar.

The provinces destined for the two consuls, on quitting office, were not named separately for each, but Pompey and Crassus were to arrange the partition between them: Dio Cassius even pretends that they drew lots. This assertion appears to be incorrect. An insurrection of the Vaccæi and the reduction of the revolt of Clunia[664 - The country of the Vaccæi comprised part of old Castile, of the kingdom of Leon, and of the Basque provinces. Clunia, a town of the Celtiberii, was situated near Coruña del Conde.] served as a pretext to ask that Spain should be given to Pompey with four legions; Crassus was to have Syria and the neighbouring states, with a considerable army. The name of Parthians was not pronounced, but everybody knew why Crassus coveted Syria.[665 - Plutarch, Crassus, 19.] Although advanced in age (he was sixty years old), he dreamt of making the conquest of the countries which extend from the Euphrates to the Indus.[666 - Plutarch, Crassus, 19.] As to Cæsar, he was to be continued in his province. The duration of these governments was for five years; they conferred the power of raising Roman or allied troops, and of making war or peace.

The propositions of Trebonius were warmly combated by M. Cato, by Favonius, and by two other tribunes of the people, Ateius and Aquilius Gallus. “But Favonius,” says Plutarch, “was listened to by nobody; some were retained by their respect for Pompey and Crassus, the greater number sought to please Cæsar, and remained quiet, placing all their hopes in him.”[667 - Plutarch, Cæsar, 24.] The enemies of the consuls in the Senate were intimidated, and kept silence. Cicero, to avoid the discussion, had retired to the country.

In the assembly of the people, M. Cato spoke against the project of law of Trebonius, or rather he employed the two hours allowed him in declamations on the conduct of the depositaries of power. When the two hours were expired, Trebonius, who presided over the assembly, enjoined him to quit the tribune. Cato refused to obey; one of the tribune’s lictors dragged him from it; he slipped from him, and a moment after re-appeared on the rostra, trying to speak again. Trebonius ordered him to be taken to prison, and, to obtain possession of his person, it required a regular contest; but, in the midst of this tumult, Cato had gained what he wanted, namely, to make them lose a day.[668 - Plutarch, Cato, 49. – Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 34.]

A second assembly had better success. Considerable sums had been distributed among the tribes, and armed bands were in readiness to interfere in case of need. The opposition, on their side, had omitted no preparation for disputing the victory. The tribune P. Aquilius, fearing that they might prevent him from approaching the public place, conceived the idea of hiding himself the previous evening in the Curia Hostilia, which opened upon the Forum. Trebonius, informed of this, caused the doors to be locked, and kept him in all the night and the next day.[669 - Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 35.] M. Cato, Favonius, and Ateius succeeded with great difficulty in reaching the Forum; but, unable to force a way through the crowd up to the rostra, they mounted on the shoulders of some of their clients, and began to shout that Jupiter was thundering, and that there could be no deliberation. But it was all in vain; always repulsed, but always protesting, they gave up the contest when Trebonius had proclaimed that the law was accepted by the people.[670 - Plutarch, Cato, 49. – Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 33, 35. – Dio Cassius pretends erroneously that the imperium in the province of Gaul was only continued to Cæsar by a sort of favour, and but for three years, when his partisans murmured at seeing that Crassus and Pompey thought only for themselves. He does not mention the conference of Lucca, which is attested by Suetonius, Plutarch, and Appian. He forgets that Trebonius, Cæsar’s creature, was one of his most devoted lieutenants in the Civil War. We think that the testimony of the other historians is to be preferred.] One of its provisions decreed that Pompey should remain at Rome after his consulship, and that he should govern his province of Spain through his lieutenants. The vote was published in the midst of the most stormy tumult. Ateius was wounded in the fray, which cost the lives of several citizens; this was a thing then too frequent to produce any great sensation.