Xylander: Vita Caesaris

I. Cinnae summa rerum Romanarum potiti filiam Corneliam Sylla uictor quum nec pollicitationibus nec minis a Casare diuellere posset, dotem eius publicauit. Causa autem Caesari inimicitiarum cum Sylla fuit Marii propinquitas. Nam Iulia, patris Caesaris soror, uxor Marii senioris, mater iunioris fuit, Casaris consobrini.

1. Sulla the victor, when he could not tear Cornelia, the daughter of those who under Cinna had gotten possession of the supreme affairs of the Roman commonwealth, away from Caesar either by promises or by threats, made her dowry public (i.e., confiscated it). Moreover, the cause of Caesar’s enmities with Sulla was his propinquity to Marius. For Julia, the sister of Caesar’s father, was the wife of Marius the elder and the mother of the younger, Caesar’s cousin.

Caesar uero quum initio prae multitudine caedium et negotiorum a Sylla se praeteritum non contentus, sacerdotii insuper petendi causa in publicum procederet, nondum plane adolescens, Sylla resistente repulsam tulit. Idem de caede eius deliberans, quibusdam dicentibus absurdum fore, si talem puerum occideret, stupidos esse respondit, si non in isto puero multos conspicerent Marios. (2) Caesar autem de hoc dicto certior factus, diu in Sabinis oberrans neci se subtraxit.

Caesar indeed, when at the beginning—because of the multitude of slaughters and of affairs—he had found himself passed over by Sulla, not content, moreover stepped forth into public for the sake of seeking a priesthood, not yet clearly an adolescent; Sulla resisting, he suffered a repulse. The same man, deliberating about his killing, when some were saying it would be absurd if he killed such a boy, replied that they were stupid if they did not behold in that boy many Mariuses. (2) But Caesar, having been made certain of this saying, long wandering among the Sabines, withdrew himself from death.

Deinde ob ualetudinem in aliam domum translatus, noctu in Syllanos milites incidit, qui loca ista perscrutabantur et latentes ibi comprehendebant. Horum duci Cornelio duobus datis talentis, dimissus est, statimque ad mare profectus, in Bithyniam ad regem Nicomedem nauigauit. Neque diu apud eum commoratus quum inde aueheretur, apud Pharmacusam insulam a piratis captus est, iam tum magnis classibus et innumeris nauigiis mare obtinentibus.

Then, transferred on account of ill-health into another house, by night he fell in with Sullan soldiers, who were thoroughly searching those places and apprehending those hiding there. To their leader Cornelius, with two talents given, he was released, and at once, having set out to the sea, he sailed into Bithynia to King Nicomedes. Nor, having tarried long with him, when he was being carried away from there, he was taken by pirates near the island Pharmacusa, they already at that time holding the sea with great fleets and innumerable little ships.

II. Ab his primum uiginti talentis dimissionem redimere iussus, derisit eos, quod nescirent quem cepissent; ultroque daturum se quinquaginta promisit. Deinde suis in diuersas urbes ad agendam pecuniam dimissis, quum inter hominum generis immanissimum Cilicas solus ipse cum uno amico et duobus famulis ageret, ita eos spreuit, ut quoties requieti se dedisset, mitteret qui eos tacere iuberent. Ita per duodequadraginta dies quasi non captus teneretur ab iis, sed stiparetur, summa securitate collusit ipsis et una exercitationibus uacauit.

2. By these men he was at first ordered to buy his dismissal for twenty talents; he mocked them, because they did not know whom they had seized, and moreover promised that he would give fifty. Then, his own men having been sent off into various cities to raise the money, while among the Cilicians—most savage of the human race—he himself alone was living with one friend and two attendants, he so despised them that whenever he had given himself to rest, he would send someone to command them to be silent. Thus for thirty-eight days, as though he were not held captured by them but escorted, he with the utmost security jested with them and at the same time devoted himself to exercises.

Carmina etiam et orationes quasdam quum scripsisset, iis recitabat, et qui non laudassent, eos palam barbaros rudesque appellabat, ac saepe per risum minabatur, se eos in crucem acturum, gaudentes ea dicendi libertate et simplicitati ac ioco imputantes. (2) Allatis a Mileto pecuniis quum satis fecisset piratis essetque dimissus, statim nauibus instructis aduersum eos ex portu Milesiorum est profectus, et stationem adhuc apud insulam habentes nactus, plerosque cepit. Itaque pecunia praedae cessit, piratas Pergami in custodiam dedit, et ad praefectum Asiae Iunium abiit, quod illius, utpote praetoris, esset de captiuis supplicium sumere.

He even, when he had written poems and certain orations, recited them to them, and those who had not praised them he openly called barbarous and rude, and often with a laugh he threatened that he would send them to the cross, they rejoicing and imputing these things to his liberty of speaking and to simplicity and jest. (2) When moneys brought from Miletus had satisfied the pirates and he had been dismissed, immediately, ships equipped, he set out against them from the port of the Milesians, and, finding them still keeping a station near an island, he took most of them. Accordingly the money accrued to the booty; he delivered the pirates into custody at Pergamum, and went to Junius, the prefect of Asia, because it was his office, as praetor, to exact punishment from the captives.

Verum quum is pecuniae intentus erat enim haud parua per otium se de captiuis deliberaturum respondisset, ualere eo iusso, Caesar Pergamum rediit, productosque in medium uniuersos piratas in crucem egit, quod illis saepe in insula iocans, ut uidebatur, praedixerat.

But when he, intent on money—for the sum was by no means small—had replied that he would deliberate about the captives at his leisure, and, with him bidden to “farewell,” Caesar returned to Pergamum, and, all the pirates brought forth into the midst, he drove them to the cross—something he had often, as it seemed, foretold to them on the island in jest.

III. Secundum haec Syllae potentia iam languescente, a suis in patriam reuocatus, Rhodum nauigauit ad Apollonium Molonis filium, quem et Cicero audiuit, insignem rhetorem et honestorum morum. (2) Fertur ad ciuiles orationes Caesar et natura aptissimus fuisse et plurimum in ea re operae posuisse, ut haud dubie secundum laudis locum tenuerit, primo autem renuntiauit, ut potentia et armis potius primus esset omnium, quandoquidem propter bellicarum et ciuilium rerum tractationem, quibus rempublicam in suam redegit potestatem, non eo peruenit eloquentiae, quo naturalis eum indoles perduxisset.

3. After these things, with Sulla’s power now languishing, recalled to his homeland by his own, he sailed to Rhodes to Apollonius, son of Molon—whom Cicero also heard—a distinguished rhetor and of honorable morals. (2) Caesar is said to have been by nature most apt for civil orations and to have put very great effort into that pursuit, so that he without doubt held the second place of praise; but he renounced the first, so that by power and arms he might be first of all, since, on account of his handling of military and civil affairs, by which he brought the Republic into his own power, he did not arrive at that point of eloquence to which his natural endowment would have led him.

Ipse quidem postea in oratione qua laudationi Catonis Ciceronianae respondit, precatus est ne militaris sermo cum oratoris ingeniosi et qui multum otii dicendo impendisset, eloquentia compararetur.

He himself, indeed, later, in the oration in which he responded to Cicero’s laudation of Cato, prayed that military speech not be compared, in eloquence, with that of an ingenious orator—one who had expended much leisure in speaking.

IV. Romam reuersus, Dolabellam repetundarum postulauit, multarum Graecarum ciuitatum testimoniis adiutus. Absolutus tamen est Dolabella. Caesar, ut gratiam Graecis referret, causam eorum egit P. Antonium captorum munerum accusantium apud M. Lucullum Macedoniae praetorem.

4. having returned to Rome, he prosecuted Dolabella on a charge of repetundae (extortion), aided by the testimonies of many Greek cities. Nevertheless, Dolabella was acquitted. Caesar, in order to return favor to the Greeks, pled their cause—those accusing P. Antonius of gifts received from captives—before M. Lucullus, praetor of Macedonia.

Ac tantum ualuit eius oratio, ut Antonius, praetendens sibi in Graecia contra Graecos iniquum esse certamen, ad tribunos plebis prouocauerit. (2) Ceterum Romae Caesar quum reis defendendis gratiosum se reddidit, tum congressibus et colloquiis comibus magnam sibi plebis beneuolentiam parauit, ultra quam aetas ipsius ferret officiosus. Simul et conuiuiorum ac coenarum et uitae splendore paulatim potentia ipsius augebatur, suo tempore in republica ualitura.

And his oration prevailed to such a degree that Antonius, alleging that for himself in Greece a contest against Greeks was inequitable, appealed to the tribunes of the plebs. (2) Moreover, at Rome, Caesar both made himself popular by defending the accused, and by affable meetings and conversations prepared for himself great goodwill of the plebs, being obliging beyond what his age would bear. At the same time, by the splendor of banquets and dinners and of his way of life, his power was gradually increasing, destined in due time to prevail in the republic.

(3) Quam initio aemuli eo neglexerunt apud uulgus efflorescentem, quod sumptibus deficientibus fore ut statim euanesceret putabant; sero admodum errorem suum animaduerterunt, quum ea grandis iam et inexpugnabilis non occulte iam ad mutationem reipublicae spectaret; adeo nullius rei initium paruum est putandum, quandoquidem id assiduitate illico magna incrementa facere potest, quum quidem eo quod neglectui sit et contemptui habitum, absque ullo impedimento augescat. (4) Sane qui primus uidetur eius institutum suspectum habuisse, ueluti maris falso blandientem tranquillitatem, latentemque sub humanitatis et hilaritatis specie calliditatem deprehendisse, Cicero dicebat se in omnibus eius conatibus atque consiliis tyrannicum propositum inesse perspexisse, sed quum eum comam ita accurate composuisse et uno dignito caput scabere uideret, non potuisse sibi persuadere eum hominem tantum facinus animo concepturum, ut rempublicam Romanam euertere aggrederetur. Sed haec post.

(3) Which at the beginning his rivals neglected as it was efflorescing among the common folk, because they thought that, with his expenses failing, it would straightway evanesce; only very late did they notice their error, when it—already great and inexpugnable—was now no longer covertly looking toward a change of the commonwealth; to such a degree that the beginning of no thing is to be thought small, since by assiduity it can immediately make great increments, seeing that, precisely because it has been neglected and held in contempt, it grows without any impediment. (4) Indeed, the one who first seemed to have held his plan suspect, as if he had detected the sea’s tranquility falsely flattering, and the craftiness lying hidden under the appearance of humanitas and hilarity, was Cicero; he said that he had perceived a tyrannical purpose to be present in all his attempts and counsels, but since he saw him arrange his hair so carefully and scratch his head with one finger, he could not persuade himself that that man would conceive in his mind so great a crime as to set about overturning the Roman commonwealth. But these things later.

V. Primum popularis beneuolentiae erga ipsum documentum exstitit, quod in ambitione tribunatus militaris C. Popilio est praelatus; alterum et illustrius, quum Iuliae Marii uxoris, amitae suae, defunctae laudationem funebrem in foro perorauit, et imagines Marii in funere ducere ausus est, tunc primum a Syllae dominatu uisas, a quo Marius cum suis hostes reipublicae fuerant iudicati. Tunc enim quibusdam obstrepentibus Caesari, populus factum eius laeto clamore et applausu approbauit, gaudens longo post tempore et quasi ab inferis eum honores Marii in urbem reduxisse. (2) Enimuero aetate prouectiores mulieres in funere laudare, moris antiqui apud Romanos fuit : primus Caesar uxorem suam, quum iuniores laudari non esset receptum, mortuam oratione funebri decorauit : quo facto animos multitudinis sibi fauore obstrinxit, ut tanquam mansuetum placidissimisque moribus uirum amarent.

5. The first proof of popular benevolence toward him was that, in his canvassing for the military tribunate, he was preferred to Gaius Popilius; a second, and more illustrious, was when he delivered in the forum a funeral laudation for Julia, the wife of Marius, his paternal aunt, and dared to lead the images of Marius in the funeral procession—seen then for the first time since Sulla’s dominion—by whom Marius with his followers had been judged enemies of the republic. For then, although some were clamoring against Caesar, the people approved his deed with joyful shouts and applause, rejoicing that after a long time, and as if from the lower world, he had brought back into the city the honors of Marius. (2) Indeed, among the Romans it was an ancient custom to praise women advanced in age at a funeral: Caesar was the first to adorn with a funeral oration his own wife, at a time when it was not the accepted practice for younger women to be praised; by this deed he bound the minds of the multitude to himself with favor, so that they loved him as a gentle man with the most placid manners.

(3) A morte mulieris quaestor cum praetore Vetere profectus est in Hispaniam, quem et coluit summa constantia et ipse praetor factus filium eius quaestorem fecit. Eo defunctus magistratu, tertiam duxit coniugem Pompeiam, quum haberet ex Cornelia filiam, quae postea Pompeio Magno nupsit. (4) Ceterum ingentes sumptus faciens, creditusque breuem et unius dieculae gloriam maximis parare impendiis, quum re uera minimis maxima emeret, fertur priusquam magistratum aliquem iniret, mille trecenta talenta aeris alieni conflasse.

(3) After the woman’s death, as quaestor he set out into Spain with the Praetor Vetus, whom he also cultivated with the highest constancy; and when he himself was made praetor, he appointed that man’s son quaestor. On completing that magistracy, he took a third consort, Pompeia, although he had by Cornelia a daughter, who afterwards married Pompey the Great. (4) Moreover, making enormous expenditures, and thought to be procuring a brief glory of a single little day by the greatest outlays, whereas in truth he was buying the greatest things for the least, he is reported, before he entered upon any magistracy, to have amassed 1,300 talents of debt.

Quum uero insuper uiae Appiae procurator constitutus, magnam a se pecuniam impendisset et aedilis uiginti et trecenta gladiatorum paria exhibuisset, ceterisque in theatra, pompas et coenas impensis omnem priorem magnificentiam superasset, tantum erga se fauorem populi concitauit, ut certatim nouos magistratus, nouos honores quaererent, quibus delatis ei gratias referrent.

But when, in addition, having been appointed procurator of the Appian Way, he had expended great money from his own funds, and, as aedile, had exhibited three hundred and twenty pairs of gladiators, and by expenditures upon theaters, pomps, and banquets had surpassed all former magnificence, he stirred up so great a favor of the people toward himself that they vied with one another to seek new magistracies and new honors, by the bestowal of which, once conferred, they might render thanks to him.

VI. Duae eo tempore factiones Rome erant, Syllana altera, tum uigens, altera Mariana, humilis tum et dissipata atque fracta. Hanc Caesar erigere et prouehere cupiens, munificentia aedilitia ad summum producta, occulte imagines Marii et Victorias tropaea ferentes noctu in Capitolio posuit, auro radiantia, arteque summa elaborata, quorum inscriptiones Cimbricas uictorias indicarent. Quae facta die quum essent conspecta, mirati sunt homines audaciam eius qui ea posuisset : nec enim is latebat.

6. Two factions at that time were at Rome, the one Sullan, then flourishing, the other Marian, then lowly and scattered and broken. Desiring to raise up and advance this latter, Caesar—his aedilician munificence brought to the highest pitch—secretly placed at night on the Capitol images of Marius and Victories bearing trophies, radiant with gold and wrought with the highest art, whose inscriptions indicated the Cimbrian victories. When these things by day were seen, men marveled at the audacity of him who had set them up : for he was not concealed.

Statim rumore uulgato uniuersi Romani ad spectaculum concurrerunt. (2) Ibi alii clamare, Caesarem tyrannidem moliri, qui legibus et senatusconsultis abolitos honores restitueret; periculum eum facere iam de animis populi, eosque premollire et explorare, num huiusmodi donis sint mancipati ipsumque rebus huiusmodi ludere et noua affectare patiatur. At Mariani subito ingenti multitudine exsistere, dictis Caesarem confirmare, plausu Capitolium implere; multi conspecta Marii imagine prae gaudio illacrimare, Caesar in oculis eorum esse, magnisque laudibus tolli ac solus Marii propinquitate dignus praedicari.

Immediately, the rumor having been spread, all the Romans ran together to the spectacle. (2) There some were shouting that Caesar was contriving tyranny, in that he restored honors abolished by laws and senatus-consults; that he was already making a trial of the minds of the people, and pre‑softening and exploring them, whether by gifts of this kind they were enslaved, and that he himself played with measures of this sort and allowed himself to aspire to novelties. But the Marians suddenly arose in a huge multitude, to confirm Caesar with their words, to fill the Capitol with applause; many, at the sight of the image of Marius, for very joy shed tears, Caesar was before their eyes, and he was being lifted up with great praises and was proclaimed the only one worthy by kinship to Marius.

(3) Conuocato eius rei causa senatu, Lutatius Catulus, qui in summa tum erat inter Romanos existimatione, surgens, inter alia quibus Caesarem accusabat, id quoque memoratum deinde dixit, eum non iam cuniculis, sed machinis rempublicam oppugnare. Sed postquam Caesar excusationem suam senatui probauit, auxit ea res animos sectatorum eius, hortatique sunt, ut ne cui animi contentione cederet; haud dubie enim omnes cum populi fauore uicturum.

(3) The senate having been convened for that matter, Lutatius Catulus, who at that time was in the very highest estimation among the Romans, rising, among other things with which he was accusing Caesar, also added this remark, that he was now assaulting the commonwealth not with mines (tunnels) but with machines (siege engines). But after Caesar made his apology approved by the senate, that circumstance increased the spirits of his followers, and they urged him not to yield to anyone in a contest of spirit; for without doubt he would prevail over all with the people’s favor.

[VII. Interim Metello pontifice maximo uita defuncto, quum id sacerdotium Isauricus et Catulus, clarissimi uiri et in senatu principes, peterent, nihil territus Caesar ipse quoque in comitiis idem ambiit, et quum paria utrinque studia uiderentur, Catulus, quo maiore esset dignitate praeditus, eo magis euentum rei incertum metuens, grandem pecuniam Caesari per internuntios obtulit, si a petitione desisteret. Respondit Caesar etiam maiore aeris alieni onere sibi contracto, se certaturum.

[7. Meanwhile, when Metellus, pontifex maximus, had ended his life, since that priesthood was being sought by Isauricus and Catulus, most illustrious men and leaders in the senate, Caesar, undismayed, he himself also canvassed for the same in the comitia; and when the zeal on both sides seemed equal, Catulus—endowed with the greater dignity, and so the more fearing the uncertain outcome of the affair—offered through internuncios a large sum of money to Caesar, if he would desist from his candidacy. Caesar replied that, even with a greater burden of debt (aeris alieni) contracted by himself, he would fight it out.]

Comitiorum die matrem eum cum lacrimis ad fores persequentem quum salutasset : Hodie, inquit, mater, filium tuum aut pontificem maximum aut exsulem uidebis. Vicit tamen in suffragiorum certamine, senatuique et optimatibus metum incussit, quod ad extremum audaciae populum producturus uidebatur. (2) Itaque Piso et Catulus Ciceronem incusabant, qui Caesari opportunam se opprimendi ansam praebenti pepercisset in coniuratione Catilinaria.

On the day of the elections, when he had greeted his mother, who with tears was accompanying him to the doors : ‘Today,’ he said, ‘mother, you will see your son either pontifex maximus or an exile.’ Yet he won in the contest of the suffrages, and he struck fear into the Senate and the Optimates, because he seemed about to lead the people to the farthest extreme of audacity. (2) And so Piso and Catulus were accusing Cicero, in that in the Catilinarian conspiracy he had spared Caesar, who was offering an opportune handle for having himself crushed.

Catilina enim, quum non mutare, sed euertere rempublicam et omnia confundere statuisset antequam totum ipsius consilium detegeretur, leuioribus quibusdam indiciis proditus profugerat, Lentulo et Cethego coniurationis exsecutoribus in urbe relictis, quibus utrum uirium aliquid fiduciaeque fecerit Caesar, non satis constat. His quidem in senatu conuictis, quum Cicero consul de supplicio iis irrogando sententias singulorum quaereret et ad Caesarem usque omnes morte mulctandos dixissent, Caesar orationem, quam fuerat ante meditatus, habuit : neque moris Romani neque iustum sibi uideri, indicta causa, idque non postulante extrema necessitate, uiros dignitate et genere illustres interficere; placere ut in urbes Italiae arbitrio Ciceronis electas diuisi in custodia teneantur, donec Catilina debellato senatus per otium de causis singulorum cognoscere ac statuere queat.

For Catiline, when he had resolved not to change but to overthrow the Republic and to confound all things, before his whole plan was uncovered, having been betrayed by certain slighter indications, had fled, with Lentulus and Cethegus, the executors of the conspiracy, left in the city; whether Caesar gave them any strength and confidence is not quite clear. These men indeed having been convicted in the senate, when Cicero the consul was asking the opinions of the individuals about inflicting punishment on them, and all, even up to Caesar, had said that they should be punished with death, Caesar delivered a speech which he had previously premeditated: that it was neither the Roman custom nor did it seem just to him, the case not having been pled, and when extreme necessity did not demand it, to put to death men illustrious in dignity and lineage; he approved that they be held, divided, in custody in cities of Italy chosen at Cicero’s discretion, until, Catiline having been defeated, the senate, at leisure, might be able to inquire into and determine the cases of each.

[VIII. Haec sententia quum humanitatem prae se ferret, et oratione facunda esset confirmata, tantum ualuit, ut non modo qui post Caesarem dixerunt, ei subscriberent, sed et quidam eorum qui ante responderant, suis retractatis ei accederent, eo usque dum ad Catulum et Catonem peruentum est. (3) Hi quum Caesaris orationem magno studio refellerent et Cato simul etiam suspicionem ei impingeret, coniurati isti ad necem traditi sunt.

[8. Since this opinion bore humanity before itself, and had been confirmed by an eloquent oration, it prevailed so greatly that not only those who spoke after Caesar subscribed to it, but even some of those who had answered before, with their own positions retracted, acceded to him, until it came to Catulus and Cato. (3) These, when they were refuting Caesar’s oration with great zeal and Cato at the same time also imputed suspicion to him, those conspirators were handed over to death.

ln Caesarem uero senatu egredientem multi eorum iuuenum qui Ciceronem stipabant, nudatis gladiis irruerent, sed eum et Curio fertur toga sua circumdata eduxisse, et ipse Cicéro respicientibus ad se iuuenibus renaisse, siue quod populum metueret, siue quod iniustam eam caedem putaret. (3) Hoc si uerum sit, equidem miror a Cicerone in libro de consulatu suo omissum. Vitio sane ei post datum est, quod occasione contra Caesarem oblata optima usus non esset, metu populi, qui incredibili studio Caesarem defenderet.

But against Caesar, as he was going out of the senate, many of those youths who were surrounding Cicero, with swords laid bare, would have rushed; but Curio, it is reported, led him out with his own toga wrapped around him, and Cicero himself, as the youths were looking back to him, is said to have shaken his head in refusal—whether because he feared the people, or because he judged that killing to be unjust. (3) If this be true, for my part I marvel that it was omitted by Cicero in his book On His Consulship. A fault indeed was afterward imputed to him, that, an excellent occasion having been offered against Caesar, he did not make use of it, from fear of the populace, who would defend Caesar with incredible zeal.

Nam et paucis post diebus, quum in senatum is diluendarum suspicionum causa uenisset, ac tumultibus exciperetur aduersis et senatus solito diutius consedisset; magno cum clamore multitudo curiam circumstetit, missum fieri Caesarem postulans. (4) Itaque Cato seditionem pauperum praesertim (hi enim Caesare freti totam multitudinem incendebant ) metuens, senatui persuasit, ut singulis mensibus plebi frumentum diuideretur : qua ex re caeteris sumptibus accessit trecenties sestertium in singulos annos. Id quidem factum magnum in praesentia terrorem auertit haud dubie maximamque Caesaris copiarum partem aueliit ac dissipauit, cum is ob praeturam, quam tum idoneo sibi tempore erat gesturus, terribilior uideretur.

For also a few days later, when he had come into the senate for the sake of washing away suspicions, and was received with adverse tumults and the senate had sat longer than usual; with great clamor the multitude surrounded the Curia, demanding that Caesar be sent out. (4) And so Cato, fearing sedition of the poor especially (for these, relying on Caesar, were inflaming the whole multitude ), persuaded the senate that grain be distributed to the plebs every single month : from which matter there was added to the other expenses 30,000,000 sesterces in each year. This deed indeed turned aside great terror for the present and, without doubt, tore away and scattered the greatest part of Caesar’s forces, since he, on account of the praetorship, which he was about to administer at a time opportune for himself, seemed more terrible.

[IX. Sed nihil in eo tumultuose actum, uerum sed domus Caesaris aduersa fortuna laesa est. P. erat Clodius patricio genere natus, opibusque et facundia clarus, libidine autem, audacia et impudicitia nemini nequissimo socundus. Is Pompeiam Caesaris uxorem deperibat, cui ne ipsi quidem uoluntas deerat.

[IX. But nothing in this was done tumultuously, rather the house of Caesar was injured by adverse fortune. P. Clodius was, born of patrician race, and renowned for wealth and eloquence, but in libido, audacity, and impudicity second to no one, even among the most wicked. He was dying for Pompeia, Caesar’s wife, to whom not even she herself lacked the willingness.

Sed et gynaeceum accurate custodiebatur et Aurelia Caesaris mater, honesta matrona, nurum ubique comitans, difficilem et periculosum congressum eorum effecit. (2) Colitur Romae dea, quam Bonam appellant, ut Graeci Muliebrem. Hanc Phryges Midae regis matrem fuisse putant, Romani Nympham Dryadem, Fauni uxorem, Graeci de nutricibus Bacchi unam, eam scilicet quam nominari nefas est.

But the gynaeceum too was carefully guarded, and Aurelia, Caesar’s mother, an honorable matron, accompanying her daughter-in-law everywhere, made their meeting difficult and dangerous. (2) A goddess is worshiped at Rome, whom they call the Good (Bona), just as the Greeks [call her] the Womanly (Muliebris). The Phrygians think her to have been the mother of King Midas; the Romans [think her] a Nymph, a Dryad, the wife of Faunus; the Greeks, one of the nurses of Bacchus—namely her whom it is impious to name.

Itaque apud hos quum sacra ei fiunt, uitium palmitibus scenae tectae gestantur, et secundum fabulam draco sacer apud Deam collocatur. Quum ea sacra peraguntur, uerum accedere aut iisdem in aedibus esse nefas ducitur; ipsae inter se mulieres multa cum Orphicis conuenientia obire feruntur. Eorum orgiorum tempus et celebrandi munus quum ad consulem uel praetorem deuenit, ipse, et omne quod est masculum, aedibus egrediuntur, uxor domo occupata eam exornat et pleraque noctu fiunt iocis ad nocturna sacra admixtis, musicaque multa adhibita.

And so among them, when sacred rites are performed for her, a vine with tendrils is carried within a covered booth, and, according to the fable, a sacred serpent is placed beside the Goddess. When those rites are conducted, it is held impious for a man to approach or even to be in the same house; the women themselves, among themselves, are reported to perform many things consonant with the Orphic rites. When the time and the duty of celebrating those orgies devolve upon the consul or the praetor, he himself, and everything that is male, go out of the house; his wife, having taken possession of the home, adorns it; and most things take place by night, with jests mingled in with the nocturnal sacred rites, and much music employed.

0X. Ea tum sacra Pompeia administrante, Clodius imberbis adhuc eoque se latere posse sperans, habitu psaltriae, specie mulieris iuuenis ad aedes uenit, quumque fores apertas offendisset, ab ancilla rei conscia tuto introducitur. Haec dum ad Pompeiam accurrit rei indicandae causa et mora fit, Clodius manere ubi relictus erat non sustinens, magna in domo hinc inde oberrat, lucem fugiens. In eum Aureliae pedisequa incidit, et mulierem rata ad colludendum inuitat, detrectantemque in medium protrahit, et quis atque unde esset percontatur, quumque is se Pompeiae abram (id est ancilla delicatior), ut et ipsa uocabatur, quaerere diceret et uirum se esse uoce proderet, subito magna cum uociferatione ad lumina et turbam se proripit, uirum se in aedibus deprehendisse clamans.

0X. At that time, with Pompeia administering those rites, Clodius, still beardless and therefore hoping that he could lie hidden, in the habit of a psaltria, with the semblance of a young woman, came to the house; and when he had found the doors open, he is safely led in by a maid privy to the matter. While she runs to Pompeia to indicate the affair and there is a delay, Clodius, not able to remain where he had been left, wanders here and there in the great house, shunning the light. Upon him Aurelia’s pedisequa falls, and, thinking him a woman, invites him to collude in play, and, as he refused, drags him into the midst, and asks who he was and whence; and when he said that he was seeking Pompeia’s “abram” (that is, a more delicate handmaid), as she too was called, and by his voice betrayed that he was a man, suddenly with great vociferation she rushes to the lights and the throng, shouting that she had apprehended a man in the house.

(2) Perterritis mulieribus Aurelia, orgiis deae sublatis, fores occludi iussit, domumque facibus praelucentibus perlustrauit, Clodium quaerens ; isque inuentus est in conclaui ancillae, quae eum domum adduxerat, quo confugerat, agnitusque a mulieribus domo eiicitur. (3) Ea adhuc nocte matronae domum digressae maritis rem aperuerunt, interdiuque rumor per urbem dispersus est, Clodium infanda conatum non iis modo ad quos ea iniuria pertineret, sed ciuitati etiam diisque poenas debere. Itaque ei quidam tribunorum plebis diem uiolatae religionis dixit, factaque est contra Clodium coitio potentissimorum senatorum, qui ei quum alia horrenda flagitia, tum incestum cum sorore Lucullo nupta obiicerent.

(2) With the women terrified, Aurelia, the rites of the goddess removed, ordered the doors to be shut, and she searched through the house with torches lighting the way, seeking Clodius ; and he was found in the chamber of the maidservant who had brought him to the house, to which he had taken refuge, and, recognized by the women, was cast out of the house. (3) That same night the matrons, having gone home, disclosed the matter to their husbands, and by day the rumor was spread through the city that Clodius, having attempted unspeakable things, owed penalties not only to those to whom that injury pertained, but also to the commonwealth and to the gods. And so one of the tribunes of the plebs set a day for him on the charge of violated religion, and a coalition of the most powerful senators was formed against Clodius, who alleged against him, along with other horrendous outrages, incest with his sister, married to Lucullus.

Huic eorum conatui populus se opponens, Clodio auxiliabatur, quod ei plurimum profuit, quia iudices perterrefacti multitudinem formidabant. (4) Caesar cum uxore statim diuortium fecit. Testimonium uero iussus dicere, nihil se eorum quo Clodio obiicerentur cognitum habere respondit.

Opposing themselves to this attempt of theirs, the people were giving aid to Clodius, which profited him very greatly, because the judges, thoroughly terrified, were dreading the multitude. (4) Caesar immediately made a divorce with his wife. But, ordered to give testimony, he responded that he had no knowledge of those things which were being laid to Clodius’s charge.

Quod quum incredibile uideretur, accusator quaesiuit ex eo, cur ergo uxorem dimisisset. Tum Cassar, siue ex animi sententia, siue ut populo gratificaretur Clodium incolumem cupienti, respondit : Quia suam uxorem etiam suspicione uacare uellet. Absolutus quidem est Clodius, quum plerique iudices (ne, si condemnassent, in periculo uersarentur apud plebem; sin absoluissent, in infamia apud optimates essent) confusis literis tulissent sententias.

Since this seemed incredible, the accuser asked of him why, therefore, he had dismissed his wife. Then Caesar, whether from the sentiment of his mind, or in order to gratify the people who wished Clodius unharmed, answered : Because he would have his own wife be free even from suspicion. Clodius indeed was acquitted, since most of the judges—lest, if they had condemned, they should be in danger with the plebs; but if they had acquitted, they should be in ill repute with the optimates—rendered their verdicts with confused ballots.

XI. Caesar statim ex praetura prouinciam nactus Hispaniam, quum foeneratores debitum exigentes molesteque profecturum urgentes atque conuiciantes placare non posset, ad Crassum confugit, Romanorum ditissimum et qui uigore ac uehementia Caesaris indigeret ob dissensionem cum Pompeio. Crasso apud creditores, qui maxime instabant, octingenta triginta talenta intercedente, in prouinciam suam abiit. (2) Narrant eam, quum Alpes transiret et praeter oppidulum quoddam barbaricum iter faceret paucis habitatum hominibus atque uile, amicis per iocum quaerentibus, an et hic de magistratibus essent contentiones ac de principatu certamina et potentium aemulationes?

11. Caesar, immediately after the praetorship, having obtained Spain as his province, when he could not placate the money‑lenders demanding the debt and, as he was about to depart, pressing him vexatiously and railing at him, fled for refuge to Crassus, the richest of the Romans and one who stood in need of Caesar’s vigor and vehemence on account of his dissension with Pompey. Crassus, interceding with the creditors who were most pressing, to the amount of eight hundred thirty talents, he departed to his province. (2) They relate that, when he was crossing the Alps and making his way past a certain barbaric little town, inhabited by few men and paltry, his friends, in jest, asked whether even here there were contentions about magistracies and contests for the principate and rivalries of the powerful?

serio respondisse, malle se hic primum quam Romae secundum esse. (3) Rursus quum in Hispania per otium librum aliquem de rebus Alexandri gestis legeret, diu cogitabundum, ad extremum illacrimasse, et amicis causam quaerentibus dixisse : An non dolendum uobis uidetur, me quum id aetatis sim, qua Alexander tot nationibus imperauit, nihil dum memoratu dignum gessisse?

that he answered in earnest, that he preferred to be first here rather than second at Rome. (3) Again, when in Spain, at leisure, he was reading some book about the deeds of Alexander, he pondered for a long time, and at last wept, and, his friends asking the cause, said : Does it not seem to you something to be lamented, that I, when I am of that age at which Alexander commanded so many nations, have as yet done nothing worthy of remembrance?

XII. Simul atque autem Hispaniam attigit, eam industriam adhibuit, ut paucis diebus cohortibus uiginti suis decem alias adiecerit, factaque in Callaicos et Lusitanos expeditione, populos qui Romanis hactenus non paruerant subigendo usque ad Oceanum perrexerit. (2) Rebus bellicis bene compositis, ciuiles eadem felicitate constituit, ciuitates ad concordiam reducens et maxime rixas inter debitores et creditores tollens, lege posita, ut de reditibus debitoris bessem creditor quotannis acciperet, dum ipsi satisfactum esset, reliquo debitor frueretur.

12. As soon as, however, he reached Spain, he applied such industry that in a few days he added ten others to his twenty cohorts; and, making an expedition against the Callaicans and Lusitanians, he proceeded, by subduing peoples who had hitherto not obeyed the Romans, all the way to the Ocean. (2) With military affairs well composed, he established civil affairs with the same felicity, bringing the communities back to concord and especially removing quarrels between debtors and creditors, a law being set down that, from the debtor’s revenues, the creditor should each year receive a bes (two‑thirds) until he himself had been satisfied, the debtor enjoying the remainder.

Parta his factis gloria ex prouincia discessit, dilatus ipse et a militibus, qui eo duce rem et ipsi fecerant, imperator dictus.

Glory won by these deeds, he departed from the province, he himself also being honored and, by the soldiers who, with him as leader, had themselves done the deed, called imperator.

XIII. Quia autem triumphum petentes extra urbem manere, consulatum ambire praesentes in urbe oportebat, ea legum diuersitate implicatus, quum ad urbem comitiis consularibus instantibus accessisset, misit ad senatum petitum, ut sibi absenti petere consulatum per amicos concederetur. (2) Cato primum lege ad postulatum id oppugnandum annixus quum uideret multos Caesari deditos, rem mora iniecta impediit, totumque diem dicendo absumpsit.

13. But because those petitioning for a triumph had to remain outside the city, while to canvass for the consulship it was necessary to be present in the city, entangled by that diversity of laws, when he had approached the city with the consular elections pressing, he sent to the senate to request that it be conceded to him, in his absence, to seek the consulship through friends. (2) Cato, striving by the law to oppose that request, when he saw many devoted to Caesar, impeded the matter by throwing in delay, and consumed the whole day by speaking.

Itaque Caesar statuit, omisso triumpho, consulatum persequi. (3) Ut primum in urbem uenit, callide eam rem confecit, qua uniuersos homines, solo excepto Catone, decepit. Pompeium enim et Crassum ex graui discordia in gratiam mutuo restituit, qui duo facile totius ciuitatis erant potentissimi, eorumque potentiam in unum conflatam ad se transferens, perhumano titulo tenus facto rempublicam nemine animaduertente peruertit.

Therefore Caesar resolved, the triumph being omitted, to pursue the consulship. (3) As soon as he came into the city, he cleverly carried through that matter, whereby he deceived all men, Cato alone excepted. For he restored Pompey and Crassus from a grave discord into mutual favor—these two were easily the most powerful of the whole commonwealth—and transferring to himself their power fused into one, by means of a most humane title in name only, he subverted the republic with no one noticing.

Non enim Caesaris et Pompeii dissidium, quod plerique putant, ciuilium bellorum causa fuit, sed amicitia uerius eorum, quam initio ad euertendum optimatium in ciuitate principatum initam deinde disciderunt. Cato autem saepenumero quae futura essent uaticinans, eum solum fructum tulit, ut tum morosus et curiosus homo, post prudentior quam felicior consultor haberetur.

For not the dissension of Caesar and Pompey, which most suppose, was the cause of the civil wars, but rather their friendship, which, initiated at the outset to overturn the primacy of the Optimates in the commonwealth, they afterwards rent asunder. Cato, however, vaticinating oftentimes what would be, reaped only this fruit: that, then a morose and meddlesome man, he was afterwards regarded as a counselor more prudent than fortunate.

XIV. Verum Caesar Crassi Pompeiique amicitia stipatus consulatum periit, eumque splendide impetrauit, Calpurnio Bibulo collega. Ut primum uero magistratum iniit, illico leges de agris diuidendis in gratiam multitudinis tulit, quae non consulem, sed petulantissimum aliquem tribunum plebis decerent.

14. But Caesar, thronged by the friendship of Crassus and Pompey, sought the consulship, and obtained it splendidly, with Calpurnius Bibulus as colleague. As soon as he entered upon the magistracy, he straightway brought forward laws about the dividing of lands in favor of the multitude, which would befit not a consul, but some most petulant tribune of the plebs.

(2) In senatu autem optimatibus repugnantibus, arrepta quam dudum quaerebat occasione, magna uoce obtestatus inuitum se et ui coactum ad populum confugere eique se committere iniuriis et uiolentia senatus compulsum, ex Curia se in forum proripuit; et a lateribus suis hinc Pompeium, inde Crassum collocans, quaesiuit ex iis, ecquid leges has probarent : affirmanteque utroque, hortatus est ut in eos opitularentur, qui gladiis se contra acturos minarentur. Promisit hoc uterque, addiditque Pompeius, se contra gladios istos cum ense et scuto etiam uenturum. Quod dictum pergratum populo, optimates offendit, insano scilicet adolescenti potius conueniens, quam tantae uiro existimationis et a uerecundia senatui debita alienissimum.

(2) But in the senate, with the Optimates resisting, having seized the opportunity which he had long been seeking, he declared with a loud voice that he, unwilling and compelled by force, was fleeing for refuge to the people and committing himself to them, driven by the injuries and violence of the senate; and he rushed out of the Curia into the forum; and, placing Pompey on one side of him and Crassus on the other, he asked of them whether they approved these laws at all : and when each affirmed it, he urged that they should give aid against those who were threatening to act against them with swords. Each promised this, and Pompey added that he would come against those swords with a sword and even a shield. Which remark, very pleasing to the people, offended the Optimates, clearly more fitting for a mad adolescent than for a man of such great estimation, and most alien to the modesty owed to the senate.

(3) At Casar, quo magis potentiam Pompeii suam faceret, Iuliam filiam suam, Seruilio Caepioni desponsatam, Pompeio nuptum dedit, promissa huic Pompeii filia, quae et ipsa Fausto Sylla filio pacta erat. (4) Neque multo post ipse Calpurniam Pisonis filiam duxit, eique consulatum in sequentem annum confecit, maxime tum Catone uociferante et testante ferendos non esse qui nuptiis principatum prostituant et mulierum causa prouincias copiasque mutuo sibi tradant. Collega Caesaris Bibulus, quam resistendo eius legibus nihil proficeret, sed saepe cum Catone in foro de uita periclitatus esset, domi inclusus reliquum consulatus tempus exegit.

(3) But Caesar, in order the more to make the potentia of Pompey his own, gave his daughter Julia, betrothed to Servilius Caepio, in marriage to Pompey, with Pompey’s daughter promised to this man, who herself had been pledged to Faustus, the son of Sulla. (4) And not long after he himself took Calpurnia, the daughter of Piso, to wife, and for him he carried through the consulship for the following year, especially then with Cato vociferating and attesting that those are not to be borne who prostitute the principate by nuptials and, on account of women, mutually hand over to one another provinces and forces. Caesar’s colleague, Bibulus, since by resisting his laws he was accomplishing nothing, but had often, together with Cato, been in peril for his life in the forum, shut up at home passed the remainder of his consulship.

(5) Pompeius nuptiis peractis statim armatis forum oppleuit, et in perferendis legibus populum adiuuit ; Caesari Gallia omnis cis et trans Alpes lllyricumque decretum cum quatuor legionibus in quinquennium. Catonem his ausum contra contradicere, Caesar in carcerem abripuit, existimans eum tribunos plebis appellaturum; sed cum quum tacitum ire, et non modo optimatibus id dolere factum, sed plebem etiam uerecundia uirtutis Catonis moestam uideret silentemque sequi, ipse clam unum de tribunis exorauit, ut Catonem eriperet. (6) De reliquis senatoribus perpauci in Curiam exinde uentitabant; ceteri indignitate eorum quae fiebant moti publico abstinebant.

(5) Pompey, the nuptials completed, straightway filled the forum with armed men, and aided the people in carrying the laws through; to Caesar there was decreed all Gaul on this side and beyond the Alps and Illyricum as well, with four legions for a quinquennium. Cato, for having dared to gainsay these measures, Caesar dragged off to prison, supposing that he would appeal to the tribunes of the plebs; but when he saw him going silent, and that not only the Optimates were pained at the deed, but the Plebs also, out of reverence for the virtue of Cato, were sad and followed in silence, he himself secretly entreated one of the tribunes to snatch Cato away. (6) Of the remaining senators, very few thereafter kept coming to the Curia; the rest, moved by the indignity of the things being done, kept away from public business.

Cuius rei quum causam Considius quidam admodum senex redderet, armorum et militum metu fieri ut non conueniretur dicens : Quid ergo, inquit Caesar, non tu quoque domi te contines, eadem timens? Et Considius : Metu me senectus liberat; quod enim reliquum est uitae, exiguum quum sit, non magna cura indiget. (7) Omnium autem factorum id turpissimum uidebatur, quod Caesare consule Clodius ille tribunus plebis est factus, qui coniugium Caesaris et arcana peruigilia polluerat.

When a certain Considius, a very old man, was rendering the cause of this matter, saying that from fear of arms and soldiers it came about that no meeting was held: “What then,” says Caesar, “do you not also keep yourself at home, fearing the same?” And Considius: “Old age frees me from fear; for that which remains of life, since it is scant, has no great need of care.” (7) But of all the deeds this seemed the most disgraceful: that, with Caesar as consul, that Clodius was made tribune of the plebs, who had polluted Caesar’s conjugal union and the arcane all-night vigils.

Ad eum autem magistratum promotus est, ut Ciceronem euerteret; neque prius Caesar ad exercitum abiit, quam opera Clodii Ciceronem oppressisset eumque Italia expulisset.

Moreover, he was promoted to that magistracy, in order to overturn Cicero; nor did Caesar go to the army before, by the agency of Clodius, he had oppressed Cicero and had expelled him from Italy.

XV. Talia eius ante Gallicum bellum facta fuerunt. Bellorum autem quae deinceps gessit et expeditionum quibus Galliam domuit tempus eum, quasi alio exorsum initio aliaque uiuendi atque agendi ingressum uia, non ullo eorum qui summi et maxime apud omnes in admiratione habentur ducum inferiorem commonstrauit et pugnandi laude et imperandi. Imo siue Fabios, Scipiones, Metellos, siue qui aequales eius aut aetate paullo superiores fuerunt, Syllam, Marium, utrumque Lucullum, ipsumque adeo, cuius ad coelum osque omnigenarum bellicarum uirtutum gloria se efferebat, Pompeium conferas, rebus eorum gestis facta Caesaris palmam praeripiunt.

15. Such were his deeds before the Gallic war. But the time of the wars which thereafter he waged, and of the expeditions by which he subdued Gaul, showed him—as if having begun from another beginning and having entered upon another way of living and acting—inferior to none of those commanders who are held as the highest and most in admiration among all, both in the praise of fighting and of commanding. Nay rather, whether you compare the Fabii, the Scipios, the Metelli, or those who were his equals or a little superior in age—Sulla, Marius, each of the two Luculli—and even Pompey himself, whose glory of all kinds of martial virtues was being borne up to heaven and to the very skies, the deeds of Caesar snatch the palm from their achievements.

Alio enim maiorem laudem consecutus est ob iniquitatem locorum in quibus bellum gessit, alio ob magnitudinem regionis quam in potestatem redegit, alio ob multitudinem deuictorum hostium et robur, alio ob insolentiam et perfidiam morum cum quibus ipsi communicandum erat, alio ob clementiam qua aduersus domitos usus est, alio ob liberalitatem et beneficia in commilitones, omnibus uero ob multitudinem depugnatorum proeliorum occisorumque hostium. Non toto enim decennio in Gallia beiligeratus, urbes octingentis plures cepit, populos trecentos subegit, quum ter millies millibus hostium congressus diuersis proeliis, quorum decies centena millia in acie interfecit, uiuos alterurn tantum cepit.

By one he achieved greater praise on account of the iniquity of the places in which he waged war, by another on account of the magnitude of the region which he brought into power, by another on account of the multitude and robustness of the enemies defeated, by another on account of the insolence and perfidy of the manners of those with whom he himself had to communicate, by another on account of the clemency which he used toward the subdued, by another on account of his liberality and benefactions toward his fellow-soldiers, but by all on account of the multitude of hard-fought battles and of enemies slain. For, in not a full decade warring in Gaul, he took more than 800 cities, subdued 300 peoples, having engaged with the enemy in various battles to the sum of 3,000,000, of whom 1,000,000 he killed in the battle line, and alive he took just as many again.

XVI. Tanta uero beneuolentia erga eum, tantum fuit militum studium, ut qui alioquin in bello nihil reliquis praestarent, ii pro Caesaris gloria inuicti quoduis periculum adirent. (2) Qualis fuit exempli causa Acilius, qui quum Massiliensi naumachia in hostilem nauim euasisset, dextera ei gladio amputata, sinistra manu clypeum tenuit, eoque facies hostium feriens, uniuersos repulit, nauique ipse potitus est.

16. So great indeed was the benevolence toward him, so great the zeal of the soldiers, that those who otherwise in war would excel the rest in nothing, for Caesar’s glory, invincible, would undertake any danger. (2) Such was, for example, Acilius, who, when in the Massilian naval battle he had boarded an enemy ship, his right hand cut off by the sword, held the shield in his left hand, and with it striking the faces of the enemies, drove them all back, and he himself gained possession of the ship.

Et Cassius Scaeua, qui in pugna ad Dyrrhachium oculum sagitta, humerum itemque femur pilo confixus, exceptis scuto centum et triginta telorum ictibus, hostes uocauit, ueluti se dediturus; accedentibusque duobus, alterius brachium gladio abscidit, alterum in faciem percussum auertit et ipse suorum auxilio saluus euasit. (3) In Britannia quum primos centuriones in palustrem et aqua repletum locum ingressos adorirentur hostes, quidam miles, ipso Caesare pugnam spectante, per medios se proripuit, quumque praeclara fortitudinis facinora edidisset, primipilis seruatis et fugientibus barbaris, aegre ipse euadens, in lacum sese coniecit et summa cum difficultate natando partim, partim gradiendo cum amisso scuto transiit. Admirante eum Caesare cum comitibus et magno cum gaudio clamoreque obuiam prodeuntibus, ipse tristis admodum et lacrimans ei supplicauit, ut sibi ueniam scuti amissi daret.

And Cassius Scaeva, who in the battle at Dyrrhachium had his eye pierced by an arrow, and his shoulder and likewise his thigh transfixed by a pilum, his shield having taken one hundred and thirty blows of missiles, called to the enemies, as though he were about to surrender; and as two came up, he cut off the arm of the one with the sword, turned the other away by striking him in the face, and himself escaped safe by the help of his own men. (3) In Britain, when the enemies attacked the first centurions as they were entering a marshy place filled with water, a certain soldier, with Caesar himself viewing the fight, dashed through the midst; and when he had performed very illustrious deeds of fortitude, the primipili being saved and the barbarians in flight, he himself, scarcely getting out, hurled himself into the lake and, with the utmost difficulty, partly by swimming and partly by walking, crossed over with his shield lost. Caesar, with his companions, marveling at him and coming to meet him with great joy and shouting, he himself, very downcast and weeping, entreated him to grant him pardon for the lost shield.

(4) In Africa Scipio nauim Caesaris cepit, inque ea quaestorem Granium Petronem; is quum hostes, reliquis inter se diuisis, eum se salute donare dicerent, Caesaris milites non accipere, sed dare salutem consueuisse inquiens, se ipsum gladio transegit.

(4) In Africa Scipio captured Caesar’s ship, and on it the quaestor Granius Petronius; he, when the enemies, with the rest divided among themselves, said that they would grant him safety, declaring that Caesar’s soldiers were accustomed not to receive but to give safety, ran himself through with his sword.

XVII. Huiusmodi autem spiritus militum et animi ardores Caesar ipse excitauit atque aluit, primum honoribus et donis largiendis, ostendens non se sui luxus aut uoluptatum causa bello diuitias parare, sed eas opes tanquam communia uirtutis praemia apud se recondi, diuitiis ad hoc tantum se uti, ut militibus pro meritis dare praemia possit; deinde quod omnibus ultro periculis se obiiciebat, et nulli labori succumbebat. (2) Et quidem eius in periculis adeundis audaciam eo minus admirabantur, quod proficisci ab incredibili gloriae cupiditate existimarent; uerum laborum tolerantia, quos praeter uires corporis sustinebat, stupefaciebat.

17. Moreover, Caesar himself both excited and nourished such spirits of the soldiers and ardors of mind, first by lavishly bestowing honors and gifts, showing that he was not procuring riches in war for the sake of his own luxury or pleasures, but that such resources were stored with him as common prizes of virtue, that he used riches for this one thing only: that he might be able to give rewards to the soldiers according to their merits; then because he of his own accord exposed himself to all dangers, and yielded to no toil. (2) And indeed they the less admired his audacity in going into dangers, because they supposed it proceeded from an incredible desire of glory; but his endurance of labors, which he sustained beyond the powers of the body, astounded them.

Nam et corporis habitu tenui fuit et alba mollique carne et capite morboso et comitiali morbo obnoxius, quod ei malum Cordubae primum accidisse dicitur. Verum ualetudinem Caesar non mollitiei ansam arripuit, sed expeditionibus, difficillimis itineribus, tenuitate uictus, et continua sub dio uita et aerumnosa morbum depellere et corpus sanum tueri studebat. (3) Plerumque in curru aut lectica dormiebat simulque prouehebatur, ut ne somnus quidem otiosus esset.

For he was also of a slender habit of body and with white and soft flesh, and with a sickly head and subject to the comitial disease (epilepsy), which misfortune is said first to have befallen him at Corduba. But Caesar did not seize upon his health as a pretext for softness, but by expeditions, most difficult marches, spareness of diet, and a continuous and toilsome life under the open sky, he strove to drive off the disease and to keep his body sound. (3) For the most part he would sleep in a chariot or a litter and at the same time be carried forward, so that not even sleep was idle.

lnterdiu uehebatur circum castella, urbes et castra, uno assidente puero, qui, dum ipse iter faceret, dictata ab ipso exciperet scribendo, unoque a tergo milite cum gladio astante. Adeo autem magna itinera faciebat, ut primam Roma expeditionem faciens, octauo die ad Rhodanum peruenerit. (4) Equitare ab ineunte aetate didicerat, ac se assuefecerat ut retro abductis manibus et tergo applicatis summo impetu equum citaret.

By day he was conveyed around forts, cities, and camps, with one boy sitting beside him, who, while he himself was making the journey, would take down in writing what was dictated by him, and with one soldier standing behind with a sword. So great, moreover, were the distances he made, that when making his first expedition from Rome, on the eighth day he arrived at the Rhone. (4) He had learned to ride from his earliest age, and had accustomed himself to urge his horse at full speed with his hands drawn back and pressed to his back.

Ea uero expeditione exercuit se praeterea ut inter equitandum epistolas dictaret, idque duobus, et, ut Oppius ait, etiam pluribus diuersas. Ferunt id quoque primum omnium Caesarem excogitasse, ut per codicillos cum amicis colloqueretur, quod coram de rebus maxime necessariis agere et urbis magnitudo et negotiorum multitudo non pateretur. (6) Quam tenui uictu usus fuerit, argumento est quod Mediolani apud hospitem suum Valerium Leonem coenans, quum is asparagum apposuisset et pro oleo recenti conditum instillasset, ipse nihil moratus comedit, amicosque indignantes increpuit : Satis erat, inquiens, non uesci iis quae displicerent, inurbani uero hominis est talem rusticitatem arguere.

In that very expedition he exercised himself further to the point that, while riding, he dictated epistles, and that to two, and, as Oppius says, even to more, different ones. They report also that Caesar was the first of all to devise that he should hold colloquy with friends through note‑tablets, because both the city’s magnitude and the multitude of affairs did not permit him to transact face to face about the most necessary matters. (6) How slender a diet he used is evidenced by this: at Milan, dining with his host Valerius Leo, when the latter had set out asparagus and, instead of fresh oil, had drizzled perfumed oil, he, without hesitation, ate it, and rebuked his friends who were indignant: It was enough, said he, not to eat things that displeased; but it is the mark of an unurbane man to arraign such rusticity.

(6) ln itinere aliquando ui tempestatis in tugurium pauperis cuiusdam compulsus, quum nihil reperisset praeter unum cubiculum uix uni recipiendo sufficiens, ad amicos dixit : Honestiora optimis, necessaria infirmissimis concedenda; idque cubiculum Oppio ad quietem concessit, ipse cum reliquis sub uestibulo ostii dormiuit.

(6) On the journey, at one time forced by the force of a storm into the hut of a certain poor man, when he had found nothing except a single chamber scarcely sufficient to receive one person, he said to his friends: "The more honorable things are to be conceded to the best, the necessary to the most infirm"; and he granted that chamber to Oppius for rest, he himself slept with the others beneath the vestibule of the doorway.

XVIII. Enimuero primum bellum Gallicum ei contra Heluetios fuit et Tigurinos, qui quum suas urbes numero duodecim ac uicos quadringentos combussissent, per Galliam Romanis subditam procedebant, quemadmodum olim Cimbri ac Teutones; quibus neque audacia inferiores uidebantur, itemque trecenta hominum millia erant, atque ex his centum nonaginta millia ad pugnam apti. Tigurinos Labienus Caesaris legatus apud Ararim flumen concidit.

18. Indeed, his first Gallic war was against the Helvetii and the Tigurini, who, when they had burned their cities to the number of 12 and 400 villages, were advancing through Gaul subjected to the Romans, just as once the Cimbri and the Teutones; than whom they did not seem inferior in audacity; likewise they were 300,000 persons, and of these 190,000 fit for combat. The Tigurini Labienus, Caesar’s legate, cut down by the river Arar.

(2) Heluetii autem Caesarem, quum is ad sociam quandam urbem exercitum adduceret, inopinato sunt in itinere adorti, occupauit tamen in locum quendam natura munitum cum suis euadere. lbi quum colligeret et instrueret copias, et equus ei adduceretur : Hoc, inquit, utar ad insequendos uictos hostes, nunc in eos eamus; simulque pedes irruit. Difficulter et sero pulsis hostibus, plurimum laboris apud carros et castra eorum sustinuit, quum non illi soli ibi, sed mulieres etiam et pueri usque ad mortem se defenderent, atque conciderentur, ita ut mediante demum nocte finis pugnandi fuerit.

(2) The Helvetii, however, when he was leading his army to a certain allied city, unexpectedly assailed Caesar on the journey; nevertheless he managed to escape with his men into a certain place fortified by nature. There, when he collected and instructed his forces, and a horse was being led up to him: “This,” he said, “I will use for pursuing the vanquished enemies; now let us go against them”; and at once he rushed in on foot. With the enemies driven back with difficulty and late, he sustained very great toil at their wagons and camp, since not they alone there, but even women and boys defended themselves unto death and were cut down, so that only with midnight intervening was there an end of fighting.

(3) Insigni uictoriae pulchrius adiecit facinus, quod barbaros a pugna superstites et fuga dilapsos, ultra centum millia hominem, coegit regionem quam reliquerant, repetere, urbesque a se crematas iterum colere. Id autem eo consilio fecit, ne Germani eam regionem habitatoribus uacuam inuaderent.

(3) To the notable victory he added a deed more fair: he compelled the barbarians, survivors of the battle and scattered in flight—more than one hundred thousand men—to return to the region which they had left, and to inhabit again the cities burned by themselves. He did this with this design, lest the Germans invade that region emptied of inhabitants.

XIX. Secundum bellum palam pro Gallis contra Germanos gessit, tametsi eorum regem Ariouistum Romae prius socium P- R- appellauisset. Erant autem intolerabiles Romanorum subditis uicini Germani et capto tempore uidebantur non contenti statu suarum rerum praesenti latius grassaturi Galliamque inuasuri.

19. He waged a second war openly on behalf of the Gauls against the Germans, although at Rome he had previously styled their king Ariovistus an ally of the Roman People. Moreover, the neighboring Germans were intolerable to the subjects of the Romans, and, seizing the opportunity, they seemed, not content with the present status of their affairs, about to range more broadly and to invade Gaul.

(2) Videns autem Caesar duces suos formidine captos, presertim uero qui nobiles iuuenes ipsum secuti erant, luxum scilicet et diuitias in castris Caesaris consecuturi, aduocata concione, abire eos neque inuitos periculo se committere iussit, qui ita effeminati essent; se cum decima legione in hostes iturum, quod neque hostes Cimbris fortiores, neque se Mario deteriorem imperatorem duceret. (3) Eam ob rem decima legio missis legatis gratias Caesari egit; reliquae suis obtrectantes ducibus repletaeque alacritate una multorum dierum iter Caesarem secutae sunt, donec uiginti quinque millibus passuum ab hostibus castrametati sunt. (4) Audaciam Ariouisti ipse aduentus Caesaris nonnihil fregit.

(2) But seeing his leaders seized by fear, especially indeed those noble youths who had followed him, namely about to obtain luxury and riches in Caesar’s camp, with an assembly called he ordered those who were thus effeminate to depart, and not, being unwilling, to commit themselves to peril; that he himself would go against the enemies with the Tenth Legion, since he deemed neither the enemies stronger than the Cimbri, nor himself a worse imperator than Marius. (3) For that reason the Tenth Legion, envoys having been sent, gave thanks to Caesar; the rest, disparaging their own leaders and filled with alacrity, together followed Caesar on a march of many days, until they encamped at a distance of 25 miles from the enemies. (4) The very arrival of Caesar somewhat broke the audacity of Ariovistus.

Mirabatur enim Caesaris confidentiam, qui ducere aduersus Germanos (quibus ipse aduentantibus fugam facturos Romanos sperauerat) exercitum non ueritus fuisset, inque suis castris trepidari sentiebat. Auxerunt terrorem uaticinia mulierum sacrarum, que in uortices fluminum inspicientes ex strepituque et fluctuatione amnium futura praesagientes, pugnare eos ante nouam lunam uetabant. (5) Qum ut sunt ad Caesarem renuntiata, Germanos quiescere uidens, statuit potius adoriri eos pugnam ita formidantes, quam otiosus desidere, dum tempus iis commodum appeteret.

For he marveled at Caesar’s confidence, who had not feared to lead an army against the Germans (at whose approach he himself had hoped the Romans would make flight), and he perceived panic in his own camp. The vaticinations of sacred women increased the terror, who, gazing into the vortices of rivers and, from the noise and fluctuation of the streams, presaging things to come, forbade them to fight before the new moon. (5) When these things were reported back to Caesar, seeing the Germans keep quiet, he decided rather to attack them, thus dreading battle, than to sit idle, while a time convenient to them was approaching.

Itaque munitiones eorum et colles quos insederant inuasit, irritatosque ut descenderent ad pugnam permouit, fuditque eos ingente strage et ad Rhenum usque per quadringenta stadia insecutus, cadaueribus et spoliis omnem planitiem repleuit, Ariouisto cum paucis elapso et Rhenum transuecto. Caesa perhibent octoginta hominum millia.

And so he invaded their fortifications and the hills which they had occupied, and, having provoked them to descend to combat, he routed them with immense slaughter, and, having pursued them for 400 stadia up to the Rhine, he filled the whole plain with corpses and spoils, Ariovistus having slipped away with a few and been conveyed across the Rhine. They report that 80,000 men were cut down.

0XX. Inde exercitu in Sequanis in hibernis relicto, ut rebus urbanis intendere animum posset, in Galliam Pado uicinam profectus est, quae et ipsa ad eius prouinciam pertinebat. Rubicone enim amne Italia a Gallia Cisalpina diuiditur.

0XX. Thence, with the army left among the Sequani in winter quarters, so that he might be able to direct his mind to urban affairs, he set out into Gaul neighboring the Po, which also itself pertained to his province. For by the river Rubicon Italy is divided from Cisalpine Gaul.

(2) Ibi quum ageret, multitudinis ad se confluentis deuinxit animos largiendo quae petebantur, nec quoquam dimisso nisi impetratis quae cupiebat aut spe excitata. Reliquo etiam belli tempore non animaduertente Pompeio alternis, modo ciuium armis hostes domuit, modo pecuniis ab hoste captis ciues captauit inque potestatem suam redegit. (3) Posteaquam uero renuntiatum est Belgas Gallorum potentissimos et qui tertiam totius Galliae partem tenerent, contractis multis hominum armatorum millibus, bellum moliri, magna aduersus eos celeritate contendit, populantesque Romanis societate coniunctam Galliam adortus, conferto agmine malo euentu pugnantes fudit, tantaque affecit strage, ut ob cadauerum multitudinem Romanis transitus per paludes altosque fluuios daretur.

(2) While he was spending time there, he bound fast the spirits of the multitude flocking to him by largessing what was being sought, dismissing no one unless he had obtained what he desired or with hope aroused. During the remaining time of the war also, Pompey not noticing, by alternation he now subdued enemies with the arms of citizens, now with monies captured from the enemy he captured the citizens and brought them back into his own power. (3) But after it was reported that the Belgae, the most powerful of the Gauls and those who held a third part of all Gaul, having gathered many thousands of armed men, were setting war in motion, he hastened against them with great celerity, and, attacking them as they were devastating Gaul joined to the Romans by alliance, he routed them—fighting in a close-packed column with ill outcome—and inflicted such slaughter that, on account of the multitude of corpses, a passage was afforded to the Romans through marshes and deep rivers.

(4) Ex his qui rebellauerant, ad Oceanum accolentes omnes, ne tentato quidem proelio, deditionem fecerunt. Inde in Neruios Caesar duxit, omnium Gallorum ferocissimos atque bellicosissimos. Hi quum saltus densissimos incolerent, medio cuiusdam siluae recessu uxoribus cum liberis atque facultatibus repositis, sexaginta millium multitudine Caesarem castra facientem neque tum pugnam exspectantem subito inuaserunt, et fuso equitatu duodecimam septimamque legionem circumdederunt, centurionesque omnes interfecerunt.

(4) Of those who had rebelled, all who dwelt by the Ocean, not even trying a battle, made surrender. Thence Caesar led against the Nervii, the most ferocious and most bellicose of all the Gauls. Since they inhabited the most dense forest-passes, after the wives with children and resources had been placed in the recess of a certain forest, with a multitude of 60,000 they suddenly assailed Caesar as he was making camp and not then expecting a fight; and, the cavalry routed, they encircled the 12th and 7th legion and killed all the centurions.

Quod nisi Caesar ipse arrepto scuto per suos in primam aciem processisset, impetumque in barbaros dedisset, eoque in tali periculo constituto decima legio a tumulis decurrisset ordinesque hostium dissipasset, nemo uidetur ea die Romanus euasurus caedem fuisse. Nunc Caesaris audacia incitati, supra uires, ut dicitur, pugnantes, Neruios non pepulere quidem, sed resistentes prope occidione occiderunt; quippe de sexaginta millibus uix quingenti, de quadringentis senatoribus tres cladi superfuerunt.

But if Caesar himself had not, having snatched up a shield, advanced through his men into the front line and delivered an attack upon the barbarians, and, with him set in such peril, the Tenth Legion had not run down from the mounds and shattered the enemy’s ranks, no Roman, it seems, would have been about to escape the slaughter that day. Now, stirred by Caesar’s audacity, fighting, as it is said, beyond their strength, they did not indeed drive the Nervii back, but, standing their ground, they almost by massacre massacred them; for out of 60,000 scarcely 500, and out of 400 senators three survived the carnage.

XXI. Haec quum senatui essent renuntiata, quindecim dierum (quod pro nulla ante unquam factum fuit uictoria) decreta est supplicatio. Nam et periculi magnitudinem tot populorum simul facta rebellio ostendebat, et uictoriae splendorem beneuolentia erga Caesarem augebat.

21. When these things had been reported to the senate, a supplication of fifteen days (which had been done for no victory ever before) was decreed. For both the magnitude of the danger was shown by the rebellion of so many peoples made at once, and the splendor of the victory was augmented by benevolence toward Caesar.

(2) Ipse uero Gallicis rebus compositis, rursus circa Padum hiemabat atque urbem callide sibi conciliare studebat. Non enim il modo qui magistratus petebant, ipso suppeditante pecuniam, populum corrumpebant et dignitates quas uellent consecuti, omnia quae ad potentiam Caesaris conducerent augendam agebant, sed et ad eum plerique illustrissimorum amplissimorumque uirorum Lucam conuenerunt, Pompeius, Crassus, Appius Sardiniae praefectus, Nepos Hispaniae proconsul, ita ut lictores ibi tum centum uiginti, senatorii uiri ducentis plures fuerint. (3) Consiliis inter se collatis digressi sunt his conditionibus, ut Pompeius ac Crassus consules constituerentur, Caesari prouincia in aliud quinquennium et pecunia ex aerario decerneretur.

(2) He himself indeed, the Gallic affairs having been set in order, was again wintering around the Po and was cleverly striving to conciliate the city to himself. For not only those who were seeking magistracies, with him himself supplying the money, were bribing the people and, having obtained the dignities they wished, were doing everything that would conduce to augmenting Caesar’s power, but also very many of the most illustrious and most exalted men met him at Lucca—Pompey, Crassus, Appius, prefect of Sardinia, Nepos, proconsul of Spain—so that there were there at that time 120 lictors, and more than 200 men of senatorial rank. (3) Their counsels having been compared among themselves, they departed on these conditions: that Pompey and Crassus should be appointed consuls, and that for Caesar a province for another five-year period and money from the treasury should be decreed.

Quod quidem nemini cordato non est uisum absurdissimum, eos qui tantum a Caesare pecuniae accepissent, senatui decernendae ei tanquam indigenti pecuniae auctores esse, aut inuito potius gementique id extorquere decretum. Cato tum aberat, quem isti de industria in Cyprum amandauerant. Fauonius autem qui erat Catonis imitator, quum in senatu diu frustra reclamasset, e curia se proripuit, et apud multitudinem magnis clamoribus questus est, quum quidem nemo dicta eius curaret, aliis Pompeium et Crassum uerentibus, aliis Caesari, in quo ipsis erant omnia, cupientibus.

Which indeed seemed to no prudent man most absurd: that those who had received so much money from Caesar should be the promoters with the senate of money to be decreed to him as though he were in need, or rather should wrench that decree from the senate, unwilling and groaning. Cato was away at that time, whom those men had on purpose sent off to Cyprus. Favonius, however, who was an imitator of Cato, after he had long protested in vain in the senate, rushed out of the curia, and among the multitude complained with great outcries; yet no one paid heed to his words—some fearing Pompey and Crassus, others desiring Caesar, in whom for themselves everything lay.

XXII. Caesar postquam in Galliam ad copias rediit, magnum iis in regionibus bellum offendit, quod duo magni Germaniae populi, Usipetes et Tenchteri, Rhenum habitationis quaerendae causa transiissent. (2) De pugna cum his facta ipse in Commentariis scribit, eos missis ad se legatis in itinere per inducias ex improuiso equitatum ipsius (erant autem quinque millia Caesarianorum equitum ) octingentis equitibus adortos in fugam uertisse; misisse deinde iterum fallendi causa legatos, quos ipse detinuerit et exercitum in hostem duxerit, stoliditatem ratus fidem erga homines ita infidos ac periuros.

22. After Caesar returned into Gaul to the forces, he found a great war in those regions, because two great peoples of Germania, the Usipetes and the Tencteri, had crossed the Rhine for the sake of seeking a habitation. (2) About the battle fought with them he himself writes in the Commentaries, that they, having sent envoys to him, while on the march under a truce, unexpectedly with 800 horsemen assailed his cavalry (now there were 5,000 Caesarian horsemen) and turned them to flight; then they sent envoys again for the purpose of deceiving, whom he detained and led the army against the enemy, judging it stolidity to keep faith toward men so faithless and perjured.

(3) Tanusius quidem scribit, quum senatus uictoriae eius causa supplicationem decerneret, Catonem sententiam tulisse, dedendum esse barbaris Casarem, expiandamque urbis nomine uiolationem foederum uertendasque in sontem exsecrationes. Caesa autem fuerunt Germanorum qui Rhenum transierant, quadringenta millia; paucos, qui reuerterunt, Sicambri exceperunt, Germanica gens. (4) Hanc nactus ansam Casar, qui alioquin gloriae studiosus primus cum exercitu Rhenum transiisse dici cuperet, ponte Rhenum instrauit, quo maxime loco is et latus admodum est et rapidus turgidusque, ita ut trunci ac ligna secundo amne deuecta pontis fulcra uehementer concuterent.

(3) Tanusius indeed writes that, when the senate was decreeing a supplication on account of his victory, Cato brought the opinion that Caesar ought to be surrendered to the barbarians, and that, in the name of the city, the violation of treaties should be expiated, and the execrations turned upon the guilty. But of the Germans who had crossed the Rhine, 400,000 were cut down; the few who returned were received by the Sicambri, a Germanic people. (4) Seizing this occasion, Caesar—who otherwise, being studious of glory, desired to be said to have been the first to cross the Rhine with an army—constructed a bridge over the Rhine, at that place where it is very broad and also swift and swollen, such that trunks and timbers carried down by the downstream current were striking the supports of the bridge with great violence.

Contra hoc Caesar sublicas ligneas ualidas et robustas obiecit, flumini impactas, quibus uis undarum frangeretur, pontemque decem omnino diebus absoluit, opus fide superius.

Against this Caesar set strong and sturdy wooden piles, driven into the river, by which the force of the waves might be broken; and he completed the bridge in altogether ten days, a work beyond belief.

XXIII. Traductis ea copiis, quum nemo occurrere auderet, sed Sueui etiam, quorum prima est inter Germanos laus, intra densas ac siluas obsitas conualles se recepissent, quum duodeuiginti dies in Germania hostium regionem incendiis uastando, sociosque quoscumque Romanorum confirmando, exegisset, in Galliam rediit. (2) Nobilis etiam conatus Britannicae expeditionis est.

23. With those forces led across, since no one dared to meet him, but even the Suevi, whose foremost praise is among the Germans, had withdrawn into valleys dense and overgrown with woods, when for eighteen days he had spent time in Germany by laying waste the enemy’s region with fires and by strengthening whatever allies of the Romans there were, he returned into Gaul. (2) Noble, too, is the attempt of the British expedition.

Primus enim cum classe occiduum Oceanum intrauit ac per Atlanticum mare copias ad bellum uexit et insulam incredibilis magnitudinis ac quae permultis scriptoribus contendendi materiam praebuit, quum quidam nihil nisi nomen esse eam putarent, occupare aggressus, Romanorum imperium extra orbem terrarum propagauit. (3) Bis ex opposita Gallia in eam insulam traiecit; quumque multis proeliis maiora Britannis damna quam suis commoda attulisset (nihil enim fere erat, quod hominibus inopem et laboriosam uitam tolerantibus eriperet) non quali statuerat exitu bellum finiit, sed acceptis a rege obsidibus et stipendio imperato, ex insula discessit. (4) In Galliam reuersus, literas accepit, quas nuntii fuerant ad ipsum in Britanniam delaturi; his amici eum certiorem de obitu Iuliae filiae Pompeio nuptae faciebant, quae in partu perierat.

For he was the first to enter with a fleet the Western Ocean and through the Atlantic sea he carried forces for war, and, having set about to occupy an island of incredible magnitude and one which furnished to very many writers material for contention—since some thought it to be nothing but a name—he propagated the dominion of the Romans beyond the orb of lands. (3) Twice from the opposite Gaul he crossed over into that island; and although in many battles he brought greater losses upon the Britons than advantages to his own men (for there was scarcely anything he could snatch away from men enduring a needy and toilsome life), he did not finish the war with the outcome he had determined, but, having received hostages from the king and imposed a stipend, he departed from the island. (4) Having returned to Gaul, he received letters which messengers had been going to deliver to him in Britain; by these his friends informed him of the death of Julia, his daughter married to Pompey, who had perished in childbirth.

Magnum is casus Caesari, magnum Pompeio dolorem attulit, amici autem perturbabantur, existimantes uinculum, quod laborantem ceteroqui rempublicam in pace et concordia continebat, morte Iuliae ruptum. Nam et infans paucis post matrem diebus obiit. Iuliam quidam inuitis tribunis populus in campum Martium detulit, ibique sepeliit.

This mishap brought to Caesar a great blow, to Pompey a great grief; their friends, however, were perturbed, thinking that the bond which kept the otherwise-laboring Republic in peace and concord had been broken by the death of Julia. For the infant also died a few days after the mother. The people, the tribunes being unwilling, carried Julia to the Campus Martius and there buried her.

XXIV. Quum uero Caesar copias suas magnas iam factas necessario in hiberna multa diuisisset, atque ipso more suo in Italiam abiisset, omnia illico Gallica bella recruduerunt; et Galli magnis cum exercitibus circumeuntes exscindebant hiberna, oppugnabantque castra Romanorom. Maxima et ualidissima pars rebellantium duce Ambiorige Cottam et Titurium cum ipso exercitu necauerunt, Ciceronis hiberna sexaginta hominum millibus obsederunt, ac tantum non expugnauerunt, Romanis omnibus consauciatis et uirtute magis quam uiribus obsidionem sufferentibus.

24. When indeed Caesar, his forces now become great, had of necessity divided them into many winter-quarters, and he himself, according to his custom, had gone away into Italy, all the Gallic wars immediately recrudesced; and the Gauls, going around with great armies, were razing the winter-quarters and assailing the camps of the Romans. The greatest and most powerful part of the rebels, with Ambiorix as leader, killed Cotta and Titurius together with the army itself; they besieged Cicero’s winter-quarters with sixty thousand men, and all but took them by storm, all the Romans being wounded and enduring the siege more by valor than by strength.

(2) Caesar, acceptis harum rerum nuntiis, tametsi procul a suis abesset, statim tamen eo conuersus, septem millibus militum contractis ad eripiendum obsidione Ciceronem properauit. Obsidentes, eius aduentu cognito et contempta paucitate, obuiam contendunt, quasi ad internecionem caesuri Caesarem. At Caesar callide subterfugere, locum nactus qui paucis aduersum multos pugnaturis esset commodus, castra munire, suos proelio abstinere, uallum altius exstrui et portas obstrui metu simulato iubere, ita se hostibus in contemptum adducere, donec eos ex ferocia sparsim effusos subito adortus fudit et magna clade affecit.

(2) Caesar, the announcements of these matters having been received, although he was far from his own, nevertheless at once turned thither; with seven thousand soldiers gathered he hastened to snatch Cicero from the siege. The besiegers, his advent being known and his paucity despised, press forward to meet him, as if about to cut down Caesar to extermination. But Caesar, cleverly seeking to evade them, having found a position convenient for a few who were to fight against many, orders a camp to be fortified, his men to abstain from battle, the rampart to be built higher and the gates to be barred, with fear simulated; thus he brings himself into contempt with the enemies, until, when they, through ferocity, were scattered in disorder, he suddenly assailed them, routed them, and afflicted them with a great calamity.

XXV. Hoc factum plerasque Gallorum qui in Belgico sunt defectiones repressit, et ipse per hiemem circum oppida passim proficiscebatur, ac ne quid nouarum rerum exsisteret obseruabat. Nam in locum amissorum militum tres ei legiones Roma missae aduenerant, quarum duas de suis militibus ei Pompeius utendas dedit, tertia ex Gallia Togata recens collecta fuit.

25. This deed repressed most of the defections of the Gauls who are in the Belgic region, and he himself during the winter was setting out everywhere around the towns, and was observing lest anything of new affairs should arise. For in place of the soldiers lost, three legions sent from Rome had arrived to him, of which Pompey gave him two, to be used, from his own soldiers; the third was recently collected from Gallia Togata.

(2) Interim in diuersa procul parte defectio, cuius iam pridem inter bellicosissimos et potentissimos homines iacta erant et alita semina, in maximum et periculosissimum illuc erupit bellum, confirmata ingentibus hominum ualida ad militiam aetate copiis et cum armis undique accurrentium, collatis in unum maximis opibus ac diuitiis; ad haec ualidae urbes et regiones difficilibus munitae accessibus; et tunc hiberno tempore congelati amnes, siluae niuibus obtectae, campi torrentibus stagnantibus perfusi, hinc itinera ob niuis altitudinem incerta, hinc ob paludes et amnes auersos perplexa uidebantur Caesarem impeditura, ne de rebellantibus poenas sumere posset. Desciuerant autem a fide Romanorum multi populi, quorum praecipui erant Aruerni et Carnutes; summa rerum ad Vercingentorigem delata erat, cuius patrem Galli affectatae tyrannidis insimulatum occiderant.

(2) Meanwhile, in a far different quarter a defection, the seeds of which had long since been cast and fostered among the most warlike and most powerful men, burst out there into a very great and most perilous war, strengthened by huge forces of men in the age robust for soldiery, and by the arms of those running in from every side, with the greatest resources and riches gathered into one; to these were added strong cities and regions fortified with hard-to-approach accesses; and then, in the winter season, rivers frozen, forests covered with snows, fields drenched by stagnant floodwaters from torrents—on this side the routes seemed uncertain because of the depth of the snows, on that, entangled because of marshes and adverse rivers—seemed likely to hinder Caesar, so that he could not exact penalties from the rebels. Many peoples had defected from loyalty to the Romans, the chief of whom were the Arverni and the Carnutes; the supreme command was entrusted to Vercingetorix, whose father the Gauls had killed, accused of an attempted tyranny.

XXVI. Is copiis in multas partes diuisis et singulis partibus suis praefectis ducibus, ad defectionem uicinas omnes usque ad Ararim regiones pertraxit, in animo habens quod iam tum Romae coitio esset aduersus Caesarem facta, uniuersam bello concitare Galliam. Et quidem si hoc paulo post molitus fuisset, Caesare bello iam ciuili implicato, haud leuiores utique Cimbricis terrores Romam inuasissent.

26. He, with his forces divided into many parts and over each part his own prefects set as leaders, drew to defection all the neighboring regions as far as the Arar, having in mind that even then at Rome a coalition had been made against Caesar, to incite all Gaul to war. And indeed, if he had attempted this a little later, with Caesar already entangled in a civil war, terrors by no means lighter than the Cimbrian would assuredly have invaded Rome.

Nunc qui omnibus rebus ad bellum praeclare, tempore autem omnium optime nosset uti Caesar, simul atque rem comperit, ipsis uiis, quas ingressus est, ipsaque itineris celeritate et impetu ostendit barbaris, inuictum se aduersum eos adducere exercitum. (2) Quo enim missum ab eo nuntium aut tabellarium peruenire multo etiam tempore posse nemo credidisset, ibi ipse statirn cum toto est conspectus exercitu, agros hostium uastans, munitiones exscindens, urbes subigens, eos qui factum mutarent in fidem recipiens, donec ab Heduis etiam est rebellatum. Hi quum se reliquo tempore fratres Romanorum appellassent, essentque ab iis praecipuos honores consecuti, tum se adiunxerunt rebellibus, multasque Caesaris exercitui molestias exhibuerunt.

Now Caesar, who knew how to use all things for war excellently, and time best of all, as soon as he learned the matter, by the very roads which he entered and by the very celerity and impetus of the march showed the barbarians that he was leading against them an unconquered army. (2) For where no one would have believed that a messenger or a letter-carrier sent by him could arrive even after much time, there he himself was at once seen with his whole army, laying waste the enemy’s fields, tearing down fortifications, subjugating cities, receiving into fidelity those who changed their course, until even by the Hedui there was rebellion. These men, although at other times they had called themselves brothers of the Romans and had obtained principal honors from them, then joined themselves to the rebels and inflicted many troubles on Caesar’s army.

Itaque Caesar inde motis castris per Lingones in Sequanos contendit socios et quorum regio omnium Gallicarum prima aditur ab Italia proficiscentibus. (4) In itinere eum hostes adorti sunt, multisque hominum millibus circumfusis pugnare coactus, omnibus copiis suis in certamen commissis temporisque diuturnitate et caede subactos compressit barbaros; tametsi initio uidetur incommodum accepisse. Ostendunt enim Aruerni pugionem in templo suspensum, spolium Caesaris; quem ipse Caesar postea quum uidisset, subrisit, amicosque tollere uolentes prohibuit, sacrum esse deputans.

And so Caesar, with the camp moved from there, pressed on through the Lingones into the Sequani, allies and those whose region, of all the Gallic regions, is first approached by those setting out from Italy. (4) On the march the enemies assailed him, and, with many thousands of men surrounding, forced to fight, with all his forces committed into the contest he subdued and compressed the barbarians by the long duration of the time and by the slaughter; although at the beginning he seems to have received a setback. For the Arverni display a dagger suspended in a temple, a spoil of Caesar; which Caesar himself, when later he had seen, smiled, and forbade his friends who wished to take it down, deeming it sacred.

XXVII. Enimuero eorum qui cladem effugissent, maior pars cum rege Alesiam confugerunt, urbem et murorum magnitudine, et tum defensorum multitudine prope inexpugnabilem uisam. Quam quum Caesar in obsidione haberet, periculum ei tantum, quantum uerbis exprimi non potest, obtigit.

27. Indeed, of those who had escaped the disaster, the greater part, together with the king, fled for refuge to Alesia, a city deemed nearly impregnable, both by the magnitude of its walls and then by the multitude of defenders. When Caesar had it under siege, there befell to him a peril so great as cannot be expressed in words.

Robur enim totius Galliae, hominum armatorum trecenta millia ad Alesiam uenerunt, quum in urbe essent non infra centum septuaginta millia, ita ut Caesar utrinque graui bello detentus, duos castris muros sit coactus circumdare, unum aduersus urbem, alterum exaduersus eus qui recens aduenerant; actum enim de se fore intelligebat si inter se copias coniungere hostibus licuisset. (2) Multis itaque nominibus celebre ad Alesiam bellum Caesaris fuit, quod obscurum non erat, nullo unquam alio bello insigniora audaciae ac peritiae opera edita esse. Id uero maximam admirationem meruit, quod Caesar non animaduertentibus qui in urbe erant hostibus, cum tot millibus conflixit, uictorque discessit, idque adeo matis, quod Romanos etiam, qui murum urbi obiectum custodiebant, fefellit.

For the strength of all Gaul, three hundred thousand armed men, came to Alesia, while in the city there were not under one hundred seventy thousand, so that Caesar, detained by a grave war on both sides, was compelled to surround the camp with two walls, one against the city, the other over-against those who had recently arrived; for he understood it would be all over with him if it were permitted the enemies to join their forces together. (2) In many respects, therefore, the war of Caesar at Alesia was celebrated, since it was not obscure that in no other war ever had more signal works of audacity and skill been produced. This indeed merited the greatest admiration: that, the enemies who were in the city not noticing, he engaged with so many thousands and departed the victor—and that all the more, because he even deceived the Romans who were guarding the wall thrown up opposite the city.

Non enim prius de uictoria cognouerunt, quam uirorum et mulierum ab Alesia eiulatum et planctum exaudierunt, qui nimirum uiderent ab altera parte multa auro argentoque ornata scuta, multos sanguine conspersos thoraces, multa pocula, multa tentoria Gallica a Romanis in castra referri. Tanta celeritate magnae istae copiae umbrae instar aut insomnii dilapsae euanuerunt, plerisque in pugna occisis. (3) Qui uero Alesiae obsidebantur, quum et se et Caesarem diu multumque torsissent, in deditionem tandem uenerunt.

For they did not learn of the victory before they heard from Alesia the wailing and lamentation of men and women, who, to be sure, saw on the other side many shields adorned with gold and silver, many cuirasses spattered with blood, many cups, many Gallic tents being carried back by the Romans into the camp. With such celerity those great forces, like the likeness of a shadow or of a dream, slipped away and vanished, the greater part having been slain in the battle. (3) But those who were being besieged at Alesia, since they had long and much tormented both themselves and Caesar, at length came into surrender.

Totius autem belli dux Vercingentorix armis indutus pulcherrimis, equo ornato portis exiit; quumque ter in orbe circa Caesarem, ut tum sedebat, equitasset, equo desiliuit, proiectisque armis ad pedes Caesaris accessit, atque ibi quietus assedit, donec ad triumphum in custodia asseruari iussus est. XXVIII. Enimuero iam pridem Pompeium euertere Caesar animum induxerat, sicut et hunc Pompeius.

But the leader of the whole war, Vercingetorix, arrayed in most beautiful arms, on a caparisoned horse, came out through the gates; and when he had ridden three times in a circle around Caesar, as he was then seated, he leapt down from his horse, and, having thrown down his arms, approached Caesar’s feet, and there sat quietly, until he was ordered to be kept in custody for the triumph. 28. Indeed, long since Caesar had resolved to overthrow Pompey, just as Pompey had resolved to overthrow him.

Crasso enim, quem uictor uterque aduersarium fuisset habiturus, in Parthis occiso, relinquebatur Caesari ut maximus fieret, eum qui maximus erat Pompeium deiiciendi, Pompeio hunc, ne id sibi accideret, ante opprimendi consilium capere. (2) Et Pompeius quidem nuper demum sibi a Caesare timere coeperat, quem hactenus neglexerat, existimans se quem euexisset haud difficulter deiecturum. At Caesar, qui multo ante hoc apud animum suum proposuisset, longe se ab aduersariis, uelut athleta, subduxerat, bellisque Gallicis et se et copias exercuerat, ac gloria factorum rerum gestarum Pompeii famam aiquauerat.

For with Crassus—whom, had either been victor, each would have had as an adversary—slain among the Parthians, it was left to Caesar, in order that he might become the greatest, to cast down Pompey, who was the greatest; to Pompey, to take counsel to crush him first, lest that should befall himself. (2) And Pompey indeed only quite recently had begun to fear for himself from Caesar, whom until now he had neglected, thinking that the one whom he had elevated he would not with difficulty cast down. But Caesar, who had proposed this long before in his mind, had withdrawn himself far from adversaries, like an athlete, and by the Gallic wars had exercised both himself and his forces, and by the glory of his deeds had equalled the fame of Pompey’s achievements.

Occasiones autem propositi sui exsequendi partim Pompeius ipsi, partim temporum uitia, corruptaque Romae reipublicae ratio suppeditabant. Quippe qui magistratus ambiebant, posita in medio mensa argentaria impudenter populum corrumpebant, isque addictis suffragiis in Campum descendebat, non uotis pro largitore, sed sagittis, gladiis et fundis certaturus, ita ut saepe sanguine et caedibus polluto tribunali discederent, urbem tanquam gubernatoris orbam effrenatae licentiae diripiendam relinquentes, adeo quidem ut cordati homines bene actum fore cum republica existimarent, si ad nihil eam deterius uesania tanta atque procella, quam ad unius alicuius dominationem redigerent. (3) Quin et inuenti iam sunt multi, qui nisi unius imperio sanari rempublicam posse negare auderent in publico, idque remedium adhibendum esse a medico lenissimo, eique obtemperandum, Pompeium scilicet indicantes.

But occasions for carrying out his design were supplied in part by Pompey himself, in part by the vices of the times and the corrupted order of the republic at Rome. For those who were canvassing the magistracies, with a money-changing table set in the midst, shamelessly corrupted the people; and that people, with their votes pledged, would go down into the Campus, not about to contend with votes for the largess-giver, but with arrows, swords, and slings, so that they often departed from the tribunal stained with blood and slaughters, leaving the city, as though bereft of a helmsman, to be plundered by unbridled license—indeed to such a degree that men of sound sense judged it would go well with the republic if so great a madness and tempest reduced it to nothing worse than the domination of some one person. (3) Nay more, many were already found who did not dare in public to deny that the republic could be healed except by the imperium of one man, and that this remedy should be applied by a most gentle physician, and that he should be obeyed—indicating, namely, Pompey.

Pompeius autem se id recusare speciose simulans, re ipsa hoc unum summo studio agebat, ut dictatorem se dici efficeret; id quod Cato intelligens, senatui persuasit uti eum solum consulem crearet, ut legitimo utcumque magistratu delinitus, contentionem dictaturae adipiscendae abiiceret. Quin et prouinciarum eius tempus prorogatum est; obtinebat autem duas Hispanias et Africam uniuersam, quas missis legatis administrabat, ex aerario quotannis acceptis mille talentis exercitus alebat.

Pompey, however, while speciously pretending to refuse that, in reality was pursuing this one thing with utmost zeal: to bring it about that he be called dictator; which Cato, understanding, persuaded the senate to create him sole consul, so that, soothed by a magistracy legitimate in any case, he might cast aside the contention for acquiring the dictatorship. Moreover, the term of his provinces was even prorogued; he held the two Spains and the whole of Africa, which he administered by legates he had sent, and he maintained his armies, receiving from the treasury each year a thousand talents.

XXIX. lnterim Caesar per nuntios consulatum et prouinciarum prorogationem petit. Ibi primum tacente Pompeio, Marcellus et Lentulus odio Cresaris petitionem eius impugnauerunt, necessariis dictis multa superuacanea addentes, quae ad contumeliam eius iniuriamque pertinerent.

29. Meanwhile Caesar through messengers sought the consulship and the prorogation of his provinces. There, at first with Pompey keeping silent, Marcellus and Lentulus, out of hatred for Caesar, impugned his petition, and, the necessary things having been said, added many superfluous matters, which pertained to his contumely and injury.

Nam Nouocomensibus, quam coloniam nuper in Galliam Caesar deduxerat, ius ciuitatis ademerunt, et Marcellus consul unum senatorum eius loci Romani profectum uirgis caedi iussit, addens se eum ita insigniisse, ut cognosceret se Romanum non esse : abiret, ac Caesari ostenderet. (2) Caesar post Marcelli hoc factum Gallicas diuitias ubertim hauriendas iis qui in republica uersarentur dedit, Curionem graui aere alieno liberauit, qui tum tribunus plebis erat, Paulo consuli H- S- trecenties sexagies largitus est; ex qua pecunia is basilicam, nobile opus, foro ornandi causa adiecit, pro Fuluia exstructum. Proinde Pompeius factionis Caesarianae metu palam ipse, amicorum etiam adhibita opera, egit uti Caesari successor mitteretur, misitque qui milites ab eo reposcerent, quos ad Gallicum bellum ei utendos concesserat.

Now, from the people of Novocomum, which colony Caesar had recently led into Gaul, they took away the right of citizenship; and Marcellus the consul ordered one of the senators of that place, a Roman who had come, to be beaten with rods, adding that he had thus marked him, so that he might know himself not to be a Roman: let him be off, and show it to Caesar. (2) After this deed of Marcellus, Caesar gave the Gallic riches to be drawn copiously by those who were engaged in the republic, freed Curio from heavy debt, who was then tribune of the plebs, and bestowed on the consul Paulus 36,000,000 sesterces; from which money he added a basilica, a noble work, for the sake of adorning the forum, built in place of the Fulvia. Accordingly Pompey, out of fear of the Caesarian faction, openly himself, with the assistance also of his friends, worked to have a successor sent to Caesar, and he sent men to demand back from him the soldiers which he had granted him to use for the Gallic war.

Remisit eos Caesar, uiritim ducentis quadraginta denariis donatos. (3) Qui autem eos ad Pompeium reduxere, ii apud uulgus sparsis de Caesare sinistris rumoribus ipsum Pompeium inani spe productum corruperunt, desiderari eum a Caesaris exercitu dicentes, et qui ob inuidiam et uitia reipublicae hic uix suum locum teneat, ei paratas ibi esse copias, atque, si modo Italiam attigissent, mox in eius potestate futuras; adeo Caesarem suis militibus ob continentes expeditiones inuisum, et metu tyrannidis suspectum esse. (4) His inflatus Pompeius quasi nihil timens curam exercitus parandi dimisit, Caesaremque, ut sibi falso persuadebat, decretis et sententiis, quas ille nihil faceret, oppugnare satis habuit.

Caesar sent them back, each man presented with 240 denarii. (3) But those who led them back to Pompey, by scattering among the common people sinister rumors about Caesar, corrupted Pompey himself, spun out by empty hope, saying that he was longed for by Caesar’s army, and that he, who here, on account of envy and the vices of the commonwealth, scarcely holds his own position, had forces there prepared for him, and that, if only they should touch Italy, soon they would be in his power; to such a degree was Caesar hateful to his own soldiers because of the continuous expeditions, and suspected through fear of tyranny. (4) Swollen by these things, Pompey, as though fearing nothing, let go the care of preparing an army, and thought it sufficient to assail Caesar, as he falsely persuaded himself, with decrees and resolutions, which that man would make nothing of.

Ferunt sane quendam tribunum militum astantem curiae, quum audiret senatum Caesari tempus imperii non prorogare, capulo gladii manu pulsato dixisse : At hic dabit.

They do indeed report that a certain military tribune, standing by the Curia, when he heard that the Senate was not proroguing to Caesar the term of his imperium, after striking the hilt of his sword with his hand, said : But this will grant it.

0XXX. Verumtamen Caesaris petitio splendidum iustitiae praetextum habebat. Postulabat enim ut tam Pompeius quam ipse ab armis discederent et priuati a ciuibus aliquid muneris peterent ; et ostendebat qui se armis spoliarent, Pompeio imperium confirmantes, eos alterum tyrannidis accusando, alteri tyrannidem parare.

030. Nevertheless, Caesar’s petition had a splendid pretext of justice. For he demanded that both Pompey and he himself should depart from arms and, as private men, seek some office from the citizens; and he showed that those who would strip him of arms—confirming the imperium to Pompey—by accusing one man of tyranny were preparing tyranny for the other.

(2) Has a Caesare latas conditiones Curio apud populum proponens magno est acceptus applausu et coronae in eum tanquam athletam coniectae. Antonius etiam tribunus plebis epistolam Caesaris eadem de re allatam apud populum inuitis consulibus recitauit. (3) In senatu autem Scipio Pompeii socer sententiam tulit, ut Caesar, nisi intra diem dictam ab armis discessisset, hostis iudicaretur.

(2) These conditions extended by Caesar, Curio, proposing them before the people, was received with great applause, and crowns were hurled at him as at an athlete. Antony also, tribune of the plebs, recited before the people, the consuls being unwilling, a letter (epistle) of Caesar brought on the same matter. (3) In the senate, however, Scipio, Pompey’s father-in-law, brought a motion that Caesar, unless he had withdrawn from arms within the appointed day, be adjudged an enemy.

Consulibus uero quaerentibus, Pompeiusne dimittere exercitum, iuberetur, itemque an Caesar, illud pauci admodum, hoc prope ormes censuerunt; quum uero Antonius postularet, uti uterque imperio se abdicaret, ab uniuersis assensum est. Vi tamen Scipio obtinuit ac Lentulus consul, armis, non suffragiis, contra latronem opus esse uociferans, ut re infecta discederetur luctuque ob tumultum uestis mutaretur.

But when the consuls were inquiring whether Pompey should be ordered to dismiss his army, and likewise whether Caesar should, for the former very few, for the latter almost all voted; but when Antony demanded that each abdicate his imperium, assent was given by all. Nevertheless, by force Scipio prevailed, and the consul Lentulus, vociferating that there was need of arms, not suffrages, against a brigand, carried that they should depart with the matter undone, and that, in mourning on account of the tumult, the dress be changed.

XXXI. Aliae deinde Caesaris allatae sunt epistolae, quibus moderate, ut uidebatur, petebat uti citerior saltem Gallia et Illyricum sibi cum duabus legionibus concederetur usque ad alterius consulatus petitionem. Cicero etiam tunc e Cilicia reuersas pacificationi studebat et Pompeium eo usque inflexerat, uti negatis militibus, cetera concederet, et eo rem inclinauerat, ut persuasi ab ipso Caesaris amici, qui iam remissiores erant, nominatarum prouinciarum et sex millium militum promissione contenti essent inirentque concordiam, idque iam Pompeius concederet.

31. Then other epistles of Caesar were brought, in which he requested, moderately, as it seemed, that at least Hither Gaul and Illyricum be conceded to himself with two legions up to the petition for another consulship. Cicero also then, returned from Cilicia, was striving for pacification and had bent Pompey to this point: that, with soldiers denied, he would grant the rest; and he had inclined the affair to this, that Caesar’s friends, persuaded by him, who were now more remiss, should be content with the promise of the named provinces and six thousand soldiers and should enter concord, and this now Pompey was conceding.

Verum Lentulus consul, quique ab eius erant factione, obstiterunt, et ab his ignominiose Antonius et Curio senatu exturbati sunt, Caesari ultro praetextum honestissimum praebentibus et qui ad animos militum irritandos plurimum conduceret; ostendebat enim eis uiros insignes, et qui cum magistratu fuissent, seruili habitu (nam ita se Roma fugientes metus causa composuerant) rheda meritoria ad se profugisse.

However the consul Lentulus, and those who were of his faction, opposed, and by these Antony and Curio were ignominiously driven out of the senate, of their own accord providing Caesar with the most honorable pretext, and one that would conduce very greatly to inflaming the spirits of the soldiers; for he was showing to them men of distinction, and men who had held magistracy, in servile attire (for thus, fleeing from Rome because of fear, they had arrayed themselves), as having fled to him in a hired carriage.

XXXII. Habebat secum Caesar haud plures trecentis equites et legionariorum militum quinque millia; reliquum exercitum trans Alpes relictum missi erant qui adducerent. Videns autem initium rerum, quas aggrediebatur, in praesentia non tam multitudine militum opus habere, quam celeritate et terrore hostibus iniecto (facilius enim se eos improuiso impetu perterrefacturum, quam armis coacturum), tribunos et centuriones iussit absque armis reliquis, solis gladiis succinctos, Ariminum occupare, magnam Italiae urbem, et quantum eius fieri posset, a caedibus et tumultu abstinere, eosque Hortensio ducendos tradidit.

32. Caesar had with him not more than three hundred cavalry and five thousand legionary soldiers; the remaining army had been left beyond the Alps, and men had been sent to bring it up. But seeing that the beginning of the affairs he was undertaking, for the present, required not so much a multitude of soldiers as celerity and terror injected into the enemies (for he would more easily thoroughly-terrify them by an unforeseen onset than compel them by arms), he ordered the tribunes and centurions, without the rest of the arms, girt with swords only, to occupy Ariminum, a great city of Italy, and, so far as this could be done, to abstain from slaughters and tumult, and he handed them over to Hortensius to be led.

(2) Ipse interdiu in conspectu omnium exercitia gladiatorum spectauit; paullum ante uesperam curato corpore in triclinium ingressus et haud diu apud eos, qui erant ad coenam uocati, moratus, iam tenebris se intendentibus abiit, salutatis ceteris et suum reditum exspectare iussis, paucis autem amicorum mandauerat uti alia alii uia se sequerentur. (3) Ipse meritorio curru primum alia uia, deinde ea quae ad Ariminum tendit, uectus, ad Rubiconem fluuium peruenit, qui Italiam a Gallia Cisalpina diuidit. Hic eum propiorem iam facinori, quod proposuerat grauissimum, ac prae magnitudine conatus sui ueluti uertigine circumactum, uariae grauesque cogitationes subierunt : itaque inhibito cursu substitit, diuque tacitus secum in utramque partem rem deliberauit.

(2) He himself by day, in the sight of all, watched the exercises of the gladiators; a little before evening, after attending to his body, he entered the triclinium and, having tarried not long among those who had been invited to dinner, as darkness was now stretching on he departed, having saluted the rest and having ordered them to expect his return; but to a few of his friends he had given instructions that they should follow him, one by one by different routes. (3) He himself, carried in a hired carriage, at first by another road, then by the one that tends toward Ariminum, came to the river Rubicon, which divides Italy from Cisalpine Gaul. Here, as he was now nearer to the deed—most grave—which he had proposed, and, by reason of the magnitude of his attempt, as if whirled about by vertigo, various weighty thoughts came over him: and so, having checked his course, he halted, and for a long time, silent, deliberated with himself on both sides of the matter.

Consiliumque eius quum plurimas habuit mutationes, tum multa etiam cum amicis, inter quos fuit Asinius Pollio, commentatus, quantorum malorum omnibus hominibus istius fluuii transitus esset praebiturus initium, et quae de eo iudicia posteritatis futura essent. (4) Tandem animi feruore quodam, ueluti euentui se ualere iussis rationibus committens, ac praefatus id, quod solent qui dubiae se fortunae et incertis periculis credunt : Iacta esto alea, transiit amnem; cursuque deinde pergens, ante lucem Ariminum peruenit, idque occupauit. Ferunt proxima qua Rubiconem transiit nocte nefarium habuisse insomnium : nempe se cum matre nefande corpus miscere.

And his counsel, while it had very many changes, he also, having commented much with friends—among whom was Asinius Pollio—on how great evils the crossing of that river would be going to provide as a beginning for all men, and what the judgments of posterity about it would be. (4) At last, with a certain fervor of spirit, as though bidding his reasons to yield to the event and committing himself to the outcome, and having prefaced that which those are wont to say who entrust themselves to dubious fortune and uncertain perils: Let the die be cast, he crossed the river; and then proceeding at a run, he reached Ariminum before light, and occupied it. They report that on the night nearest to that on which he crossed the Rubicon he had a nefarious dream: namely, that he nefariously commingled his body with his mother.

XXXIII. Occupato Arimino, bellique iam tanquam latis plateis in omnes terras et maria aperto aditu, ac confuso simul cum prouinciarum limitibus iure reipublicae Romanae; non iam, ut alias fieri solet, consternatione hominum oborta uiros et mulieres per Italiam discurrere uidisses, sed L ipsas adeo urbes certatim ac promiscue fugere; Romam uero fuga atque migratione circumiectorum populorum ueluti fluuiorum illuuie oppletam, neque cuiusquam iam dicto audientem esse, neque oratione temperari posse, sed in tanto aestu atque procellis, tantum non ipsam a se ipsa subuerti. Contrarii enim affectus et uehementes motus ubique locorum exsistebant, quum ne ii quidem, qui gaudio afficiebantur, quiescerent, sed spe euentus ferocirent et passim cum timentibus sibi ac dolentibus in uasta urbe concurrentes contenderent.

33. With Ariminum occupied, and with the war now, as if with broad thoroughfares, an access opened into all lands and seas, and with the ius of the Roman res publica thrown into confusion together with the boundaries of the provinces; no longer, as is wont otherwise to happen when consternation of men has arisen, would you have seen men and women running about through Italy, but even the cities themselves, in rivalry and indiscriminately, to flee; Rome indeed, filled by the flight and migration of the surrounding peoples as if by the alluvion of rivers, now obeying no one’s word, nor able to be tempered by any speech, but in so great a surge and tempests, all but subverting herself by herself. For contrary affections and vehement motions were arising everywhere, since not even those who were affected with joy kept quiet, but grew fierce with hope of the event and, meeting everywhere with those who feared for themselves and grieved, in the vast city they rushed together and contended.

At Pompeium attonitum alii aliter perturbare : hi, quod euexisset Caesarem contra se et rempublicam, poenas eum dare dicentes; illi culpantes, quod cedentem iam et aequas ferentem conditiones a Lentulo contumeliis affici passus esset. (2) Fauonius pede eum terram percutere iubebat, quod elatius aliquando in senatu uerba faciens, nihil eos de belli apparatu sollicitos esse iusserat, se, si quando Caesar ad urbem moueret, ut primum pede solum pulsasset, exercitibus Italiam impleturum. (3) Et uero tunc Pompeio quam Caesari ampliores erant copiae : sed nemo eum suis uti consiliis sinebat.

But Pompey, thunderstruck, different people were unsettling in different ways: these, saying that, because he had raised up Caesar against himself and the Republic, he must pay penalties; those blaming him, because he had allowed Caesar—now yielding and bearing fair conditions—to be subjected to contumelies by Lentulus. (2) Favonius was bidding him strike the ground with his foot, because, speaking rather loftily once in the senate, he had ordered them to be unconcerned about the apparatus of war, saying that he, if ever Caesar should move against the city, as soon as he had struck the soil with his foot, would fill Italy with armies. (3) And in truth at that time Pompey had more ample forces than Caesar: but no one permitted him to use his own counsels.

Itaque uictus multitudine falsorum rumorum atque terrorum, tanquam omnibus iam ab hoste occupatis, eoque iam imminente, abreptus communi hominum impetu, tumultum esse decernit et urbe excedit, iusso sequi senatu, et omnibus qui patriam et libertatem tyrannide antiquiorem haberent.

Therefore, overcome by the multitude of false rumors and terrors, as if everything had already been occupied by the enemy and he now imminent, carried off by the common impulse of men, he decrees that there is a tumult and departs from the city, with the senate ordered to follow, and all who held the fatherland and liberty to be more ancient than tyranny.

XXXIV. Consules ne iis quidem sacris, quae ante exitum fieri leges iubent, peractis fugerunt; fugiebant et senatorum plerique, obiter de suis, tanquam aliena si essent, quaedam abripientes secum. Fuerunt etiam qui quum ante Caesaris partes secuti essent, tamen tunc stupore excussi consiliis una procella fugae eius, nulla sua necessitate, abriperentur.

34. The consuls fled with not even those sacred rites completed which the laws command to be performed before departure; the majority of the senators too were fleeing, snatching in passing from their own belongings certain things to take with them, as if they were someone else’s. There were even those who, although previously they had followed Caesar’s party, yet then, their counsels shaken by stupefaction, were swept away by the same tempest of his flight, with no necessity of their own.

Miserrimum uero fuit spectaculum urbis, quum ea ueluti nauis ingenti ingruente tempestate, rectoribus iam desperantibus, ad quemcumque fortuna obtulisset locum, eiectum iri uideretur. (2) Nihilominus, quamuis ea migratio esset miserrima, fugam tamen Romani ob Pompeium pro patria habuerunt et Romam, tanquam Caesaris castra, reliquerunt; quando Labienus etiam, praecipuus inter amicos Caesaris, quique eius bellis Gallicis legatus fuisset et in omnibus rebus promptissimam ei nauasset operam, ab eo ad Pompeium perfugit. (3) Huic quidem Caesar pecuniam et impedimenta eius transmisit.

But most wretched indeed was the spectacle of the city, when it, like a ship with a huge tempest rushing upon it, with the helmsmen now despairing, seemed about to be cast out to whatever place fortune had offered. (2) Nevertheless, although that migration was most wretched, the Romans, on account of Pompey, reckoned the flight to be for the fatherland, and they left Rome as though it were Caesar’s camp; since Labienus also, foremost among Caesar’s friends, who had been his legate in the Gallic wars and had rendered him the most prompt service in all matters, fled from him over to Pompey. (3) To this man indeed Caesar sent across his money and baggage.

Domitius triginta cum cohortibus Corfinium obtinebat : is quum admoto exercitu Casar cum obsedisset, rebus suis desperatis, a seruo medico uenenum poposcit, idque ut moriturus bibit. Statim uero audito Caesarem mira humanitate captos hostes prosequi, deplorauit suam sortem et consllii celeritatem, quumque eum medicus bono esse animo iussisset et somniferum, non letale bibisse uenetmm ostendisset, incredibili gaudio affectus surrexit et Caesarem adiit, ab eoque benigne acceptus, iterum ad Pompeium profugit. Hic Romam renuntiata hominum animos deliniuere, ita ut multi se a fuga in Urbem reciperent.

Domitius was holding Corfinium with thirty cohorts : he, when Caesar had besieged him with the army brought up, his affairs despaired of, demanded poison from a slave-physician, and, as one about to die, drank it. Immediately, however, on hearing that Caesar pursued captured enemies with wondrous humanity, he bewailed his lot and the swiftness of his counsel; and when the physician had bidden him be of good cheer and had shown that he had drunk a somniferous, not a lethal, poison, affected with incredible joy he rose and went to Caesar, and, kindly received by him, again fled to Pompey. These things, reported back at Rome, soothed men’s minds, so that many withdrew themselves from flight and returned into the City.

XXXV. Caesar Domitianis militibus et quoscumque alios per oppida Pompeii nomine conductos deprehendit, in suam potestatem redactis, magnis iam auctus copiis et terribilis, aduersus ipsum contendit Pompeium. Sed is aduentum eius haudquaquam praestolatus, praemissis Dyrrhachium cum exercitu consulibus, Brundusium fugit, et paullo post Caesare eo insequente inde soluit, quae singulatim omnia in Vita eius persequemur.

35. Caesar, having caught Domitius’s soldiers and whatever others he found hired in Pompey’s name through the towns, and having reduced them into his own power, now augmented with great forces and formidable, marched against Pompey himself. But he, by no means awaiting his arrival, with the consuls sent ahead to Dyrrachium with the army, fled to Brundisium, and a little later, with Caesar pursuing there, set sail from there; all of which particulars we shall pursue severally in his Life.

Caesaris autem Pompeium statim insequendi consilium penuria nauium impediit. Redacta in potestatem suam spatio dierum sexaginta uniuersa absque sanguine Italia, Romam uenit (2) Ibi quum res exspectatione sua pacatiores offendisset compluresque senatores, hos benigno sermone popularique compellauit, hortatusque est ut ad Pompeium legatos de pace tolerabilibus conditionibus componenda mitterent; nemo tamen obtemperauit, siue quod Pompeium a se desertum metuerent, seu quod praeter animi sententiam simulari haec a Caesare putarent. (3) Metello autem tribuno plebis pecuniam ex aerario auferre prohibenti Caesar legesque praetendenti, «Non, inquit, idem est armorum atque legum tempus : tu, si tibi quae geruntur displicent, hinc te age; non enim libertatem dicendi bellum admittit; ubi arma deposuero et bellum compositum erit, tunc redibis, si libet, et popularia ista perorabis.

But Caesar’s plan of pursuing Pompey at once was impeded by a scarcity of ships. Having reduced all Italy without bloodshed into his power within the space of sixty days, he came to Rome. (2) There, when he had found affairs more pacified than he expected and a number of senators, he addressed these with a kindly and popular speech, and exhorted them to send legates to Pompey for composing peace on tolerable conditions; yet no one obeyed, whether because they feared Pompey, whom they had deserted, or because they thought that these things were being simulated by Caesar contrary to his real intention. (3) But to Metellus, tribune of the plebs, who forbade removing money from the treasury and was putting forward the laws, Caesar said, «The time of arms is not the same as that of laws: you, if the things being done displease you, be off from here; for war does not admit freedom of speaking; when I shall have laid down my arms and the war has been composed, then you will return, if you please, and you will perorate those popular measures.»

Et haec ego tibi dico, de meo decedens iure, meus enim tu es et omnes quos de aduersa factione cepi.» (4) Hoc locutus, ad aerarium perrexit. Quumque claues nusquam inueniret, accitis fabris fores effringi iussit. Ibi rursus instantem Metellum, et a nonnullis laudatum, interfecturum se, nisi finem obturbandi fecisset, neruose minatus est, addens : Haud quidem te, o adolescentule, fallit, difficilius mihi hoc dicta esse quam factu.

And this I say to you, waiving my own right—for you are mine, and all whom I have taken from the adverse faction.» (4) Having said this, he proceeded to the treasury. And when he could find the keys nowhere, the craftsmen having been called in, he ordered the doors to be broken open. There, to Metellus pressing him again, and praised by some, he threatened vigorously that he would kill him unless he made an end of obstructing, adding: “It does not, indeed, escape you, O young man, that this is harder for me to say than to do.”

Id dictum fecit ut et Metellus perterritus discederet et reliqua Caesari facilius ac celerius, quibus ad bellum opus erat, subministrarentur.

That remark effected that both Metellus, thoroughly terrified, withdrew, and that the remaining things, which were needed for the war, were furnished to Caesar more easily and more swiftly.

XXXVI. Proinde in Hispaniam expeditionem fecit, quod statuisset primo Afranium et Varronem legatos Pompeii inde profligare, prouinciaque ea et copiis potitus, ac nullo a tergo relicto hoste, ita demum Pompeium persequi. Eo bello quum et insidiis saepe petitus in discrimen uitae uenisset et exercitus eius fame praesertim laborasset, tamen insequendi, prouocandi et munitionibus circumueniendi hostes non ante finem fecit, quam castra eorum et exercitum caperet, ducibus ad Pompeium fuga se conferentibus.

36. Accordingly he made an expedition into Spain, because he had resolved first to rout Afranius and Varro, Pompey’s legates, from there, and, having gained possession of that province and the forces, and with no enemy left in his rear, only then to pursue Pompey. In that war, although often assailed by ambushes he came into jeopardy of life and his army suffered especially from famine, nevertheless he did not cease from pursuing, provoking, and encircling the enemies with fortifications, until he captured their camp and their army, the commanders betaking themselves in flight to Pompey.

XXXVII. Reuersum inde Romam Piso, socer eius, hortatus est, uti ad Pompeium pacis contrahendae causa legatos mitteret, Isauricus autem Caesaris studio ductus contradixit. Caesar ex eo dictator constitutus a senatu, exsules reduxit et a Sylla proscriptorum liberis petitionem rnagistratuum concessit debitoresque foenorum quadam diminutione subleuauit, alia id genus haud multa egit, intra diem undecimum dictatura se abdicauit, consulque cum Seruilio Isaurico a se ipso factus, bellum prosecutus est.

37. Having returned thence to Rome, Piso, his father-in-law, urged him to send legates to Pompey for the purpose of contracting peace, but Isauricus, led by zeal for Caesar, objected. Thereupon Caesar, appointed dictator by the senate, restored the exiles and granted to the children of those proscribed by Sulla the petition for magistracies, and he relieved debtors by a certain diminution of interest; he did not do many other things of that kind, and within eleven days he abdicated the dictatorship, and, consul with Servilius Isauricus, made by himself, he prosecuted the war.

(2) Relicto in itinere reliquo propter festinationem exercitu, cum sexcentis delectis equitibus et quinque legionibus circa brumam atque Ianuarii initium (qui fere mensis Atheniensium Posideoni respondet) mari se commisit, Ionio transmisso Oricum et Apolloniam cepit; inde naues remisit Brundusium, ad milites qui tardius aduenerant transfretandos. (3) Hi dum essent adhuc in itinere, ut quorum iam aetate corpora languescerent, animique prae multitudine bellorum deficerent Caesarem incusabant. "Quis tandem, dicebant, ei finis erit nos circumducendi et nobis quasi omnis laborum sensus animaeque expertibus utendi?

(2) Leaving the rest of the army behind on the march because of haste, with 600 chosen horsemen and 5 legions around the bruma and the beginning of January (which month roughly corresponds to the Athenians’ Poseideon) he committed himself to the sea; the Ionian having been crossed, he took Oricum and Apollonia; from there he sent the ships back to Brundisium, for the soldiers who had arrived more slowly to be ferried across. (3) These men, while they were still on the way—men whose bodies were now languishing with age, and whose spirits were failing from the multitude of wars—were accusing Caesar. “What, at last,” they said, “will there be an end for him of leading us around and of using us as if we were devoid of all sense of labors and of spirit?”

At enim et ferrum crebris ictibus retusum est, et clypeo thoraciue tam longo tempore quaenam fuit quies? Annon ex uulneribus Caesar intelligit se mortalibus imperare nobis et doloribus mortique obnoxiis? At is ea anni uentorumque tempestate mari incumbente, quam ne deus quidem aliquis superare ui queat, audacter in aperta nos pericula coniicit, tanquam si non insequeretur, sed fugeret hostes". (4) Haec illi dictitantes lento gradu Brundusium profecti sunt.

But indeed even the iron has been blunted by frequent blows, and for the shield or the breastplate what rest has there been for so long a time? Does not Caesar from our wounds understand that he commands mortals, and men subject to pains and to death? But he, in such a season of the year and of winds, with the sea pressing on, which not even any god could overcome by force, boldly hurls us into open dangers, as if he were not pursuing but fleeing the enemies". (4) Saying these things repeatedly, they set out for Brundisium with a slow step.

Sed ut eo peruenerunt et euectum iam ante Caesarem senserunt, statim mutata sententia se ipsos culpauere, imperatoris proditores sese uocantes : duces quoque incusauerunt, qui non celerius duxissent. Porro autem in promontoriis sedentes, mare et Epirum prospectabant, naues operientes quibus ad imperatorem transueherentur.

But when they reached that place and perceived that Caesar had already put out to sea, at once, their opinion changed, they blamed themselves, calling themselves traitors to the emperor; they also accused the leaders, who had not led more swiftly. Furthermore, sitting on the promontories, they were looking out upon the sea and Epirus, awaiting the ships by which they might be transported across to the emperor.

XXXVIII. Interim Caesar Apolloniae quum non satis haberet secum copiarum, morante ea, de qua modo retulimus, exercitus parte, summa sollicitudine et dolore percitus, rem grauissimam aggressus est. Naui quae duodecim remis ageretur clam omnibus conscensa, statuit Brundusium traiicere, quum tantis classibus mare hostes obtinerent.

38. Meanwhile, Caesar, at Apollonia, since he did not have enough forces with him, with that part of the army, of which we have just reported, delaying, smitten with the utmost solicitude and grief, undertook a most grave enterprise. Having secretly boarded a ship which was driven by twelve oars, he resolved to cross over to Brundisium, though the enemies were holding the sea with such great fleets.

(2) Itaque noctu seruili ueste occultatus in eam se contulit et tanquam extremae sortis homo quietus decubuit, Aooque flumine est ad mare deuectus. Auram matutinam, quae apud ostia amnis procul repulsis undis tranquillitatem solebat efficere, tum uentus qui ab alto uehemens eam noctem tenuerat, exstinxerat, ita ut ob aestum maris undantis fluctusque occurrentes incitatus fluuius et exasperatus, magno cum strepitu et grauibus retro auersus procellis nulla ui a gubernatore superari posset, isque iam nautas retro auertere nauim iuberet. (3) Hic Caesar re cognita se ipsum aperuit, manumque gubernatoris uiso eo obstupefacti apprehendens : Agedum, inquit, bene uir, audacter perge, neu time quicquam : Caesarem uehis, et Caesaris una fortunam.

(2) And so, concealed by night in a servile garment, he betook himself into it, and, like a man of the lowest lot, lay quiet; and by the river Aous he was carried down to the sea. The morning breeze, which at the river’s mouths, with the waves driven back, was accustomed to produce calm, a wind from the deep, violent, which had held through that night, had then extinguished, so that the river, spurred on and roughened by the swell of the heaving sea and the opposing waves, turned back with great crashing and heavy squalls, and could by no force be mastered by the helmsman, and he was already ordering the sailors to turn the ship back. (3) Here Caesar, the matter understood, revealed himself, and, grasping the hand of the helmsman, astonished at the sight of him: “Come then, good man,” he said, “proceed boldly, and fear nothing: you carry Caesar, and with Caesar his Fortuna.”

Nautae illico tempestatis obliti, remis insurrexere, omnique conatu aduersus uim amnis laborarunt. Postquam frustra omnis labor fuit, nauisque in ipsis ostiis multa aqua recepta periclitata est, inuitus admodum Caesar rectori ut cursum conuerteret concessit. (4) Redeunti cateruatim obuios se dedere milites, grauiter conquerentes, quod non uel cum solis ipsis se uincere posse existimasset, sed quasi praesentibus diffideret, ita se ob absentes angeret tantumque discriminis adiret.

The sailors at once, forgetful of the tempest, sprang to the oars, and with every endeavor labored against the force of the river. After all toil was in vain, and the ship at the very mouths, having taken in much water, was put in peril, Caesar, very unwilling, conceded to the helmsman that he should turn the course. (4) To him returning, the soldiers in bands presented themselves to meet him, gravely complaining that he had judged he could not conquer even with themselves alone, but, as though he distrusted those present, thus on account of the absent he vexed himself and approached so great a peril.

XXXIX. Mox et Antonius cum exercitu a Brundusio transuectus adfuit. Exinde Caesar, confirmata fiducia, Pompeium castra commodo loco habentem et terra marique commeatu subuecto instructum ad pugnam prouocauit, quum ipse neque initio abunde necessariorum haberet et postmodo grauissima premeretur inopia.

39. Soon too Antony, transported with the army from Brundusium, arrived. Thence Caesar, his confidence confirmed, challenged Pompey—who was holding his camp in a convenient position and was furnished for action with commissariat brought up by land and sea—to battle, although he himself neither at the outset had necessities in abundance and afterwards was pressed by most grievous want.

Quippe radicem quandam effodiebant milites concisamque et lacte subactam comedebant. Quin et aliquando confectis ex ea panibus, ad excubias hostium accurrentes, intro eos coniecerunt, dicentes se a Pompeii obsidione non discessuros, dum terra esset huiusmodi radices productura. At Pompeius neque panes istos neque sermones efferri ad uulgus militum passus est, ne milites animum desponderent, Caesarianorum immanitatem et extremam tolerantiam, quasi ferarum, formidantes, (2) Semper autem leuia proelia ad munitiones Pompeianas sunt commissa, et Caesar, quum semper discessisset superior, semel exercitu ipsius fuso prope ipsa castra amisit.

Indeed the soldiers were digging up a certain root and, chopped and worked with milk, they ate it. Nay, even sometimes, loaves having been made from it, running up to the enemy sentry-posts, they flung them in among them, saying that they would not depart from the siege of Pompey so long as the earth should produce roots of this kind. But Pompey allowed neither those loaves nor the reports to be carried out to the common soldiery, lest the soldiers lose heart, fearing the savagery and extreme endurance of Caesar’s men, as if of wild beasts. (2) Moreover light skirmishes were always engaged at Pompey’s fortifications, and Caesar, although he had always come off superior, once, with his army routed, was defeated close to the very camp.

Nemo enim mansit in iis Pompeio irruente, sed et fossae cadaueribus impletae, et apud ipsum uallum munitionesque effuse fugientes caesi sunt. Caesar autem quum obuium se offerens fugam inhibere conaretur, nihil egit aliud, nisi ut signiferi signa ipso apprehendente abiicerent, de quibus duo et triginta ab hostibus capta sunt. Atque ipse Caesar leui tum momento morti ereptus est.

For no one stood fast in those positions with Pompey rushing in; rather, the ditches were filled with cadavers, and right at the rampart itself and the fortifications those fleeing in rout were cut down. But Caesar, when, presenting himself to meet them, he tried to check the flight, accomplished nothing else except that the signifers (standard-bearers), as he himself was seizing the standards, threw them away—of which 32 were captured by the enemy. And Caesar himself at that time was snatched from death by a slight moment.

Etenim magno cuidam et robusto uiro iuxta se fugienti manum iniiciens, manere et in hostem se uertere iubebat ; is totus, ut fit in graui periculo, perturbatus, gladio ictum ei intentauit, ac feriisset, nisi armiger Caesaris brachium ei amputare occupasset. (3) Adeo quidem tum de suis rebus desperauit, ut quum Pompeius siue metu siue fato operi tanto finem non imposuisset, sed hostibus ex fuga in castra inclusis, suos abduxisset, discedens amicis suis dixerit : Hodie penes hostem fuisset uictoria, si uincere scientem habuissent. (4) Noctem uero eam omnium acerbissimam exegit Caesar in tentorio decumbens, grauissimis cogitationibus uexatus, quod rem male gessisset, qui quum ad uicinas locupletes regiones urbesque diuites Macedoniae ac Thessaliae bellum potuisset auertere, ad mare, quod totum in hostium potestate erat, desidere maluisset, oppugnatus uerius commeatuum penuria quam armis oppugnans.

For indeed, laying a hand on a certain great and robust man fleeing beside him, he was ordering him to stay and to turn himself against the enemy ; that man, wholly, as happens in grave peril, perturbed, aimed a blow at him with his sword, and would have struck, had not Caesar’s armor-bearer been quick to cut off his arm. (3) So much indeed did he then despair of his own affairs, that, although Pompey, whether from fear or from fate, had not put an end to so great a work, but, with the enemy shut up in their camp from their flight, had led off his own men, departing he said to his friends: “Today the victory would have been with the enemy, if they had had one who knew how to conquer.” (4) Indeed that night, the most bitter of all, Caesar passed lying in his tent, vexed by most grave cogitations, because he had conducted the matter badly, he who, although he could have turned the war toward the neighboring opulent regions and the wealthy cities of Macedonia and Thessaly, had preferred to sit down by the sea, which was entirely in the enemy’s power, being besieged rather by a scarcity of supplies than besieging with arms.

(5) Ita iactatus et praesentibus difficultatibus sollicitatus castra mouit eo consilio, ut in Macedoniam contra Scipionem duceret, sperans se aut Pompeium eo pertracturum, ubi commeatu a mari destitutus cogeretur pugnare, aut Scipionem a sociis desertum oppressurum.

(5) Thus tossed and agitated by present difficulties, he moved the camp with the design of leading into Macedonia against Scipio, hoping that he would either draw Pompey thither, where, deprived of supplies from the sea, he would be compelled to fight, or would overwhelm Scipio, deserted by his allies.

0XL. Haec Caesaris discessio Pompeianos milites ducesque excitauit, ut uictum fugientemque Caesarem insequi iuberent. Ipse enim Pompeius in discrimen pugnae mittere summam rerum quammaxime cauebat, optimeque ad tempus ducendum paratus, cunctando atterere et conficere hostem, cuius haud diu uigere possent copiae, cupiebat.

40. This departure of Caesar roused the Pompeian soldiers and commanders to order that Caesar, vanquished and fleeing, be pursued. For Pompey himself was taking the utmost care not to commit the sum of affairs into the hazard of battle, and, being excellently prepared for drawing out time, he desired by delaying to wear down and finish off the enemy, whose forces could not be vigorous for long.

(2) Etenim copiarum Caesaris pars pugnacissima peritia et incomparabili audacia praedita ad certamina obeunda, ad castra uero huc illuc mouenda et munienda, ad muros custodiendos et excubandum propter senectutem defatigata animum despondebat, ita ut confectis corporibus alacritas etiam eos in obeundis laboribus deficeret. (3) Sed praeter haec lues etiam pestilens ferebatur in castris Caesaris grassari, coorta ex uictus magna insolentia; et, quod grauissiuunn erat, neque a pecunia, neque a commeatu instructus Caesar, breui uidebatur temporis spatio uel per se confectum iri.

(2) For indeed the most pugnacious part of Caesar’s forces, endowed with expertise and incomparable audacity for undergoing combats, yet for moving the camp here and there and fortifying it, for guarding the walls and for keeping vigil, worn out on account of senescence, was losing heart, so that, their bodies spent, even alacrity failed them in undertaking toils. (3) But besides these things, a pestilential plague was said to be raging in Caesar’s camp, having arisen from great excess in diet; and, what was most grave, Caesar, furnished neither with money nor with supply, seemed likely, in a brief span of time, to be brought to ruin even of himself.

XLI. Eas ob causas Pompeio a pugna abhorrenti unus Cato assensus est, eo quod ciuibus parceret, quippe hic etiam uelato uultu lacrimans discesserat, quum hostium cadauera, qui ad mille in acie ceciderant, conspexisset. Ceteri omnes Pompeium, quod pugnam subterfugeret, culpauerunt, irritaueruntque Agamemnonem et regem regum appellantes, quod imperium deponere nollet, sed tot principes a se pendere et ad tentorium suum commeare gauderet.

41. For these causes, as Pompey was abhorring from battle, only Cato assented, because he would spare citizens; indeed he too, with veiled countenance, departed weeping, when he had caught sight of the cadavers of the enemies, about a thousand of whom had fallen in the battle-line. All the others blamed Pompey for shunning the fight, and they irritated him, calling him Agamemnon and king of kings, because he was unwilling to lay down the imperium, but rejoiced that so many princes depended on him and came to his tent.

(2) Et Fauonius, Catonis dicacitatem insani in morem aemulans, quiritabatur, si propter Pompeii unius cupiditatem imperandi ne isto quidem anno Tusculanis ficubus uesci liceret. Afranius etiam, qui recens ex Hispania re male gesta aduenerat, et male audiebat quod accepta pecunia prodidisse exercitum putaretur, tum interrogabat : ecquid non pugnaret Pompeius aduersus mercatorem, qui a se mercatus fuisset prouincias. (3) His omnibus praeter animi sui uoluntatem compulsus Pompeius pugnae conserendae causa Caesarem est insecutus.

(2) And Favonius, emulating Cato’s wittiness after the manner of a madman, kept crying out that, on account of Pompey’s sole desire of commanding, not even in that year would it be permitted to feed on Tusculan figs. Afranius too, who had recently arrived from Spain with the affair ill-conducted, and had an ill name because, money having been received, he was thought to have betrayed the army, then kept asking: whether Pompey would not fight against a merchant who had purchased provinces from him. (3) Compelled by all these things contrary to the will of his own mind, Pompey pursued Caesar for the sake of joining battle.

Caesari iter perdiffcile fuit, nemine commeatum praebente, omnibusque eum ob acceptam nuper cladem despicientibus. Sed ut Gomphos, Thessalicum oppidum, ceperat, non alimenta modo exercitui parauit, uerum etiam morbo eos insperato quodam modo liberauit. Vino enim, in cuius magnam inciderant copiam, abunde hausto milites, comessati deinde per uiam atque bacchati ex crapula habitu corporis immutato, affectum priorem discusserunt.

Caesar’s march was very difficult, with no one furnishing provisions and all despising him because of the calamity lately received. But when he had taken Gomphi, a Thessalian town, he not only prepared aliments for the army, but even, in some unexpected way, freed them from their disease. For the soldiers, having drunk abundantly of wine, into a great supply of which they had fallen, then feasting along the road and raging in Bacchic fashion, from the crapulous carousal, with the habit of the body altered, shook off their former affection.

XLII. Postquam Pharsaliam ingressi uterque castra fecit, Pompeius ad id consilii, quod primum intenderat, reuolutus est, territus praeterea ostentis l'arum felicibus: {uidebatur enim sibi secundum quietem plausu P- R- in theatro excipi}. At sociis eius tantum erat confidentiae, adeoque spem uictoriae animis iam praeceperant, ut de Caesaris pontificatu Domitius, Spinther et Scipio contenderent, multique Romam mitterentur, qui aedes consulatum et praeturam ambientibus idoneas conducerent atque occuparent, ueluti statim confecto bello magistratus gesturis. (2) Maxime omnium equites ferociebant, pugnamque expetebant et armorum mirifico splendore ornati et equis bene saginatis instructi et pulchritudine sua superbi Caesarianosque prae paucitate (nam septem millia Pompeio, mille tantum Caesari erant) contemnentes.

42. After they had entered Pharsalia and each made camp, Pompey reverted to that line of counsel which he had first intended, overawed moreover by auspicious ostents of the Lares: {for it seemed to him during sleep that he was received with the applause of the P- R- in the theater}. But among his allies there was so much confidence, and to such a degree had they already anticipated in their minds the hope of victory, that Domitius, Spinther, and Scipio were contending for Caesar’s pontificate, and many were sent to Rome to rent and pre-occupy houses suitable for those canvassing the consulship and the praetorship, as though, the war straightway finished, they were about to bear magistracies. (2) Most of all the horsemen were swaggering, and were seeking battle, adorned with the wondrous splendor of their arms, equipped with well-fattened horses, and proud of their own comeliness, and despising the Caesarians for their fewness (for there were 7,000 for Pompey, only 1,000 for Caesar).

Ne pedestribus quidem copiis hostem Caesar aquabat, quippe uiginti duo millia, Pompeianorum quadraginta quinque millibus opponebat.

Not even in infantry forces did Caesar match the enemy, since he was opposing 22,000 to the 45,000 of the Pompeians.

XLIII. Caesar, aduocatis in concionem militibus, Cornificium cum duabus legionibus appropinquare, quindecim cohortes cum Caleno circum Megara et Athenas uersari ostendit, et interrogauit, illorumne aduentum exspectare, an absque his proelium committi uellent. llli sublato clamore poposcerunt, uti ne moram iniiceret, sed id omni arte atque consilio potius ageret, ut hostem ad pugnam eliceret.

43. Caesar, having called the soldiers into an assembly, pointed out that Cornificius with two legions was approaching, and that fifteen cohorts with Calenus were active around Megara and Athens, and he asked whether they wished to await their arrival, or to have the battle engaged without them. They, with a shout raised, demanded that he not interpose delay, but rather that he should conduct the matter with every art and counsel, to elicit the enemy to battle.

(2) Lustranti deinde exercitum Caesari primamque immolanti hostiam aruspex statim dixit, hoc triduo pugna cum hoste decretum iri. Quaerenti porro, numnam aliquod uictoriae signum in extis conspiceret, «Tu, inquit, rectius quam ego, tibi responderis. Magnam enim dii status rerum tuarum in diuersam partem portendunt mutationem : itaque si in praesentia res tuas existimas bono esse loco, aduersam fortunam, sin afflictas censes, meliorem spera.» (3) Ea nocte quae pugnam praecessit, quum excubias ipse inspiceret, fax coelestis ignis conspecta est, quae quum super castra eius splendida et flammea ferretur, in Pompeii castra decumbere uidebatur.

(2) Then, as Caesar was reviewing the army and immolating the first victim, the haruspex immediately said that within this three-day period a battle with the enemy would be joined. And when he further asked whether he saw any sign of victory in the entrails, “You,” he said, “will have answered yourself more correctly than I. For the gods portend a great change in the state of your affairs into the opposite direction: therefore, if at present you reckon your affairs to be in a good position, expect adverse fortune; but if you judge them to be afflicted, hope for a better.” (3) On the night that preceded the battle, when he himself was inspecting the watches, a torch of celestial fire was seen, which, as it was being borne, bright and fiery, over his camp, seemed to settle down in Pompey’s camp.

Matutina etiam uigilia Panicum terrorem in castris hostium exstitisse senserunt. Neque uero pugnam eo die futuram Caesar sperabat, sed castra ueluti ad Scotusam profecturus mouebat.

They perceived that at the morning watch too a Panic terror had arisen in the enemy’s camp. Nor indeed did Caesar expect that battle would take place on that day, but he was moving the camp as if about to set out to Scotusa.

XLIV. Quum iam detensis tabernaculis exploratores equis ad ipsum aduecti, hostes ad pugnam descendere annuntiarunt, hoc nuntio uehementer gauisus, deos comprecatus est, triplicemque instruxit aciem. Mediam Domitio Caluino commisit, Antonio sinistrum cornu, dextrum ipse tenuit, decimae legionis praesidio pugnam initurus.

44. When, the tents now taken down, scouts conveyed on horses right up to him announced that the enemies were descending to battle, rejoicing vehemently at this message he invoked the gods, and he arrayed a triple battle line. He committed the center to Domitius Calvinus, the left wing to Antony, he himself held the right, about to enter the fight with the Tenth Legion as his guard.

Contra hoc equites hostium obiectos uidens, eorumque splendorem et multitudinem metuens, occulte ab extremis ordinibus ad se cohortes sex subire et post dextrum cornu adstare iussit, mandato quid agerent hostium equitatu irruente. (2) Pompeius dextrum cornu, alterum Domitius, mediam aciem Scipio Pompeii socer ducebat. Equitatus uniuersi moles ad sinistrum cornu coiuerat, spe dextri hostium cornu circumueniendi magnamque apud eorum ducem fugam stragemque edendi; non enim impetum hunc tot equitum a pedestri acie posse sufferri, sed omnia perrupta statim prostrataque fore putabant apud hostes.

Against this, seeing the enemy horsemen thrown forward and fearing their splendor and multitude, he secretly ordered six cohorts from the extreme ranks to come up to him and to stand behind the right wing, with instructions what they should do when the enemy cavalry charged. (2) Pompey was leading the right wing, Domitius the other, and the middle battle line Scipio, Pompey’s father-in-law. The whole mass of cavalry had gathered upon the left wing, in the hope of circumventing the enemy’s right wing and of producing a great rout and slaughter before their commander; for they thought that this onrush of so many horsemen could not be borne by the infantry battle line, but that everything among the enemy would be broken through and laid low at once.

(3) Quum iam congressus signum essent daturi, Pompeius stare suos in procinctu iussit, seruatisque ordinibus hostium incursum excipere, donec ii intra pili coniectum uenissent. In quo eum Caesar peccasse ait, neque animaduertisse, incursionem statim ab initio cursu et impetu factam ictibus robur addere et animi feruorem ex omnibus exagitatum inflammare. (4) Ipse iam aciem commoturus et ad rem gerendam accessurus, quendam primi pili ducem, hominem fidum sibi et belli peritum, primum omnium uidet suos cohortantem et ad fortitudinem instigantem.

(3) When they were now about to give the signal for engagement, Pompey ordered his men to stand in battle-array, and, their ranks maintained, to receive the enemy’s incursion until they had come within the throw of the pilum. In this Caesar says that he erred, and did not observe that an assault made at once from the outset with running and impetus adds strength to the blows and inflames the fervor of spirit, stirred up in all. (4) He himself, now about to set the battle-line in motion and to approach to conduct the action, sees a certain centurion of the first pilus, a man faithful to him and experienced in war, before all others exhorting his men and urging them to bravery.

Hunc nominatim compellans, Quid, ait, spei, C. Crastine, quid fiduciae habemus? Tum Crastinus manum intendens, contenta uoce, Vincemus, inquit, Caesar, praeclare; me quidem aut uiuum aut mortuum hodie laudabis. Haec locutus, primus omnium cum centum uiginti militibus quos secum habebat, cursu in hostes latus est; primisque dissipatis, quum magna caede ac ui pergeret, ense per os traiecto, ita ut mucro supra occiput exiret, obtruncatur.

Addressing him by name, he said: “What hope, C. Crastinus, what confidence have we?” Then Crastinus, stretching out his hand, in a loud voice: “We shall conquer, Caesar, splendidly,” he said; “as for me, whether alive or dead, you will praise me today.” Having spoken these things, first of all, with one hundred twenty soldiers whom he had with him, he charged at a run against the enemy; and with the foremost scattered, as he pressed on with great slaughter and force, with a sword driven through his mouth, so that the point came out above the back of his head, he is cut down.

XLV. Hoc modo pugna inter pedites in medio et a cornibus etiam commissa, Pompeiani equites turmas suas confidenter ad circumdandum dextrum hostium cornu explicant. Qui antequam impetum darent, a Caesare cohortes procurrunt, non, ut alioquin solebant, pila eminus coniicientes neque suras aut femora cominus ferientes, sed in ora et facies ictus intentantes.

45. In this way, the battle having been joined between the foot-soldiers in the middle and also from the wings, the Pompeian cavalry deploy their squadrons confidently to encircle the enemy’s right wing. They, before they could deliver the charge, cohorts from Caesar’s side ran forward, not, as they were otherwise accustomed, hurling their pila from afar nor striking the calves or thighs at close quarters, but aiming blows at the mouths and faces.

Ita enim Caesar eos docuerat, sperans homines qui in bello atque inter uulnera haud diu egissent, iuuenes et formae decore florentes, maxime huiusmodi uulnerum metu cessuros, ac quum praesens periculum, tum mansuram in posterum deformitatem fugituros. (2) Neque id abs re fuit. Non enim sustinuerunt uolitantia pila ferrumque ante oculos obuersans, sed faciei suae quisque timens, auerterunt sese et texerunt, tandemque ita perturbatis ordinibus in fugam uersi sunt, turpissime summam rei pessumdantes.

For thus indeed Caesar had instructed them, hoping that men who had not spent long in war and among wounds, youths flourishing in the grace of form, would especially yield at the fear of wounds of this kind, and would flee both the present peril and a disfigurement to last thereafter. (2) Nor was that off the mark. For they did not withstand the flying pila and the steel presenting itself before their eyes; but each, fearing for his own face, turned away and covered himself, and at length, with their ranks thus disturbed, they turned to flight, most shamefully ruining the whole enterprise.

Statim enim qui hos uicerant, peditibus circumfusi, a tergo eos inuaserunt. (3) At uero Pompeius ut ab altero cornu dissipatos uidit equites, non iam idem qui prius, neque se Pompeium esse Magnum recordans, uerum eius similis, cui dii sanam eripuissent mentem {aut clade diuinitus illata obstupefactus}, tacitus in tentorium suum abiit, ibique euentum exspectans sedit, donec omni ipsius exercitu fuso, castra etiam ipsa adorti sunt hostes et cum custodibus pugnauerunt. Ibi demum ueluti ad sanitatem reuersus hoc unum, ut aiunt, fatus, Ergone etiam ad castra ? paludamento posito fugae aptam uestem sumpsit et e castris elapsus est.

For immediately those who had defeated them, surrounded by the foot-soldiers, attacked them from the rear. (3) But indeed Pompey, when he saw from the other wing the horsemen scattered, now no longer the same as before, nor remembering that he was Pompey the Great, but like one from whom the gods had snatched a sound mind {or stunned by a disaster divinely inflicted}, went silently into his tent, and there, awaiting the outcome, sat, until, with his whole army routed, the enemies even attacked the camp itself and fought with the guards. There at last, as if returned to sanity, uttering this one thing, as they say, So then even to the camp ? laying aside the paludamentum he took clothing apt for flight and slipped out of the camp.

Qua deinde fortuna usus sit, utque se ipsum Aegyptiis in manus dans, ab iis sit interfectus, in eius Vita ostendimus.

By what fortune he then fared, and how, giving himself into the hands of the Egyptians, he was slain by them, we have shown in his Life.

XLVI. Caesar castra hostium ingressus quum hostium cadauera inspexisset et alios qui necarentur, gemitu edito, Hoc, inquit, ergo uoluerunt, ad eam me necessitatem compulerunt? scilicet ut C. Caesar, qui maxima bella feliciter confecissem, dimisso exercitu condemnarer.

46. Caesar, having entered the enemies’ camp, when he had inspected the corpses of the enemy and others who were being slain, with a groan uttered, “Is this,” he said, “then what they wanted? Have they compelled me to that necessity? namely, that Gaius Caesar, who had successfully completed the greatest wars, with the army dismissed, be condemned.”

(2) Haec Asinius Pollio Latine tum Caesarem pronuntiasse, post autem Graece scripsisse ait. Plerosque seruos fuisse eos, qui in castrorum expugnatione ceciderint; milites haud plures sex millibus periisse. Plerosque peditum captorum Caesar in suas legiones immiscuit.

(2) Asinius Pollio says that Caesar had then pronounced this in Latin, but afterwards wrote it in Greek. He says that most of those who fell in the storming of the camp were slaves; that not more than 6,000 soldiers perished. Caesar intermixed most of the captured infantry into his own legions.

Multis etiam illustribus uiris impunitatem concessit, inter quos et Brutus fuit, a quo deinde occisus est; fertur grauiter doluisse, quum is nusquam inueniretur, et quum incolumis ad se adduceretur, magnopere gauisus esse.

He also granted impunity to many illustrious men, among whom was Brutus as well, by whom thereafter he was slain; it is reported that he grieved gravely when he was nowhere to be found, and that, when he was brought to him unharmed, he rejoiced greatly.

XLVII. Multis uero prodigiis ea uictoria est praemonstrata, quorum id, quod Trallibus euenisse narrant, illustrissimum est. Ibi in templo uictoriae statua Caesaris posita erat, loco circum solido et natura et lapidibus instrato pauimento; inde tamen iis diebus iuxta fundum statuae palma enata est.

47. By many prodigies indeed that victory was foreshown, of which the one they report to have occurred at Tralles is the most illustrious. There, in the temple of Victory, a statue of Caesar had been set up, in a place solid all around and with the pavement laid both by nature and by stones; yet in those days, right next to the base of the statue, a palm sprang up.

(2) Patauii autem C. Cornelius, Liuii historici ciuis et familiaris, diuinandi scientia nobilis, quum eo die, quo depugnatum est, auguria obseruaret, primo tempus ipsum, ut testatur Liuius, pugnae notauit, iisque qui aderant dixit iam rem confici, proeliumque committi. Deinde ad obseruanda signa iterum conuersus, iis perspectis diuino quodam furore afflatus exsiluit, uociferans : Vincis, o Caesar. Attonitis illis qui intererant, coronam capiti detraxit, sacramento se obstringens, non ante se eam resumpturum, quam artem exitus comprobasset.

(2) At Patavium, however, Gaius Cornelius, a citizen and intimate of Livy the historian, famous for the science of divination, when on that day on which the fighting took place he was observing the auguries, first marked, as Livy attests, the very time of the battle, and told those who were present that the affair was already being brought to a close, and that the battle was being joined. Then, having again turned to observe the signs, and these perceived, inspired by a certain divine frenzy he leaped up, vociferating : You conquer, O Caesar. As those who were present were thunderstruck, he removed the garland from his head, binding himself by an oath that he would not resume it before the outcome had proved his art.

Haec ita acta esse Liuius affirmat.

Livy affirms that these things were done in this way.

XLVIII. Caesar uictoriae ergo Thessalis libertate donatis, Pompeium insequi institit. Quom in Asiam peruenisset, Cnidios in gratiam Theopompi, eius, qui fabulas conscripsit, liberos reddidit, omnibusque Asiae habitatoribus tertiam tributi partem renisit.

48. Caesar, on account of the victory, with the Thessalians endowed with liberty, pressed on to pursue Pompey. When he had arrived in Asia, he restored the Cnidians to freedom in favor of Theopompus, the one who composed fables, and he remitted to all the inhabitants of Asia a third part of the tribute.

(2) Alexandriam Pompeio iam mortuo uenit, ibique Theodotum caput illius offerentem auersatus, accepto sigillo eius illacrimauit; ormes autem socios eius et familiares qui per eam regionem errantes a rege capti essent, adsciuit sibi, ac beneficiis ornauit. Scribensque ad amicos Romam, hunc se dixit fructum uictoriae amplissimum dulcissimumque ferre, quod semper aliquos eorum ciuium, qui arma contra ipsum tulissent, seruare sibi daretur. (3) Bellum uero Alexandrinum quidam ab eo nulla necessitate susceptum, sed ob amorem Cleopatrae eum infamiam simul et grauia pericula ista adisse dicunt ; quidam in regios administros culpam conferunt, eunuchum Pothinum praecipue, qui potentissimus omnium, nuper Pompeio caedem parauerat, Cleopatram regno eiecerat, actum Caesari occulte exitium struebat : quam fuisse Ca'sari causam perhibent, ut insidiarum euitandarum gratia noctes compotando exigere inciperet.

(2) He came to Alexandria with Pompey now dead, and there, turning away from Theodotus as he offered that man’s head, he wept upon receiving his seal; but he enrolled to himself all his associates and familiars who, wandering through that region, had been seized by the king, and he adorned them with benefactions. And writing to his friends at Rome, he said that he bore this as the most ample and most sweet fruit of victory: that it was granted him always to save some of those citizens who had borne arms against him. (3) But as for the Alexandrine War, some say it was undertaken by him with no necessity, but that on account of love for Cleopatra he incurred both infamy and grave dangers; some lay the blame upon the royal administrators, especially the eunuch Pothinus, who, most powerful of all, had lately prepared the slaughter of Pompey, had cast Cleopatra out of the kingdom, and was secretly contriving Caesar’s ruin: which they report to have been the cause for Caesar to begin, for the sake of avoiding ambuscades, to spend his nights in compotation (drinking).

Et quidem palam intolerabilis erat Pothinus, multa in Casaris inuidiam contumeliamque dicens ac faciens. (4) Milites enim quum iis pessimum uetustissimumque dimetiretur frumentum ferre iussit et boni consulere, quod de alieno ederent, ad coenas ligneis utebatur tantum et fictilibus uasis, aurea et argentea Caesarem pignorfis loco habere dicens. (5) Debuerat autem pater eius qui tum rex erat Caesari septingenties H- S- et tum Caesar reliquum eius summae liberis eius donabat, quadringenties solum petebat ad alendum exercitum.

And indeed Pothinus was openly intolerable, saying and doing many things to load Caesar with envy and contumely. (4) For when he measured out to the soldiers the worst and most time-worn grain, he ordered them to bear it and to take it in good part, on the ground that they were eating at another’s expense; and at dinners he used only wooden and earthenware vessels, saying that the gold and silver he had Caesar hold in the place of a pledge. (5) Now his father, who was then king, ought to have owed Caesar seventy million sesterces (H- S-), and at that time Caesar was remitting to his children the remainder of that sum, asking only forty million (H- S-) for the maintenance of the army.

Pothinus eum in praesentia abire et magna sua negotia persequi iubebat, post eum cum gratiarum relatione debitum recepturum. Caesar se nihil omnino Aegyptiis consiliariis opus habere respondit, et occulte Cleopatram ad se ex agro acciuit.

Pothinus was ordering him for the present to depart and to pursue his great affairs, promising that afterward he would receive his due with a relation of thanks. Caesar replied that he had no need whatsoever of Egyptian counselors, and secretly summoned Cleopatra to himself from the countryside.

XLIX. Haec cum uno suorum amicorum Apollodoro Siculo in lembum ingressa, iam nocte ingruente ad regiam peruenit, quumque latere aliter non posset, in longum porrecta loris stragulo se illigari ab Apollodoro, atque ita ad Caesarem per fores apportari passa est. Hac primum Cleopatrae techna captus ac proteruitate traditur Caesar, uictus deinde suauitate consuetudinis eius et iucunditate, in gratiam fratris eam restituit, una cum illo regnaturam.

49. She, having entered a skiff with one of her friends, Apollodorus the Sicilian, with night now threatening, arrived at the royal palace; and since she could not hide otherwise, stretched out at full length, she allowed herself to be bound by Apollodorus with thongs in a bed-covering, and thus to be carried through the doors to Caesar. By this device of Cleopatra and by her protervity Caesar is said to have been captivated at first; then, conquered by the suavity of her consuetude and by her jocundity, he restored her into the favor of her brother, to reign together with him.

(2) Postea facta hac compositione quum frequenti omnes conuiuio interessent, tonsor Caesaris, ut erat hominum timidissimus, ideoque curiose omnia explorabat et clanculum auscultabat, ab Achilla exercituum praefecto et Pothino eunucho insidias strui Caesari percepit, indiciumque rei detulit. Caesar coenaculum praesidio cinxit, et Pothinum necauit. At Achillas fuga in castra elapsus difficillimum ei bellum intulit, parua manu contra ingentes copias, inque tanta urbe id sustinere coacto.

(2) After this settlement was made, when all were present at a well-attended banquet, Caesar’s barber—since he was the most timid of men and therefore carefully explored everything and secretly eavesdropped—perceived that plots were being laid against Caesar by Achillas, prefect of the armies, and by the eunuch Pothinus, and he brought notice of the matter. Caesar surrounded the dining-room with a guard, and killed Pothinus. But Achillas, slipping away in flight to the camp, brought against him a most difficult war, with a small band against huge forces, and Caesar, in so great a city, was compelled to sustain it.

(3) Primum periculum fuit, quod aqua prohibebatur, aquae ductibus hostium opera obstructis; alterum, quod interclusus a classe sua, periculum incendio amoliri coactus est, quod a nauali grassatum magnam etiam bibliothecam absumpsit; tertium fuit, quum apud Pharum commissa pugna ab aggere in lembum desiluit, suisque pugnantibus auxilium tulit, multis uero Aegyptiorum nauibus petitus, in mare se ipsum coniecit, magnoque cum labore enatauit, lembo, in quo fuerat, ab hostibus statim submerso. Ferunt eum tunc libellos multos manu altera tenuisse, eosque, tametsi et mergeretur et telis impeteretur, non dimisisse, uerum una manu supra aquam extulisse, altera natasse. (4) Ad extremum rege ad hostes digresso, proelium commisit, et multis deiectis, ipsoque etiam rege (incertum quo modo) de medio sublato uicit.

(3) The first danger was that water was cut off, the aqueducts being obstructed by the work of the enemies; the second, that, cut off from his fleet, he was compelled to avert the peril by a conflagration, which, having advanced from the naval quarter, consumed even the great library; the third was this, that, when a battle was engaged at the Pharos, he leapt down from the mole into a skiff and brought aid to his men fighting; but, assailed by many ships of the Egyptians, he hurled himself into the sea and, with great toil, swam out, the skiff in which he had been being immediately sunk by the enemies. They report that then he held many little books in one hand, and that, although he was both being submerged and was being attacked with missiles, he did not let them go, but held them up above the water with one hand and swam with the other. (4) At last, the king having gone over to the enemies, he joined battle, and, many being struck down, and the king himself also (uncertain in what manner) removed from the midst, he was victorious.

Cleopatram inde Aegypti reginam constituit, qum paullo post filium ex eo peperit, quem Alexandrini Caesarionem appellauerunt.

He then established Cleopatra as queen of Egypt, who a little later bore a son by him, whom the Alexandrians called Caesarion.

0L. Ipse statim ab eo bello in Syriam profectus, Asiam inde peragrauit. Ibi ei renuntiatum est, Domitium a Pharnace Mithridatis filio uictum ex Ponto cum paucis profugisse, Pharnacen uictoriam insatiabili cupiditate subsecutum, iam Bithynia et Cappadocia occupatis minorem Armeniam appetere, omnesque in illis partibus reges principesque ad defectionem pertrahere. Aduersus hunc illico tribus cum legionibus profectus, apud urbem Zelam ingenti proelio facto exercitum eius occidione deleuit, ipsumque Ponto expulit.

40. He himself immediately from that war set out into Syria, and from there traversed Asia. There it was reported to him that Domitius, defeated by Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates, had fled from Pontus with a few; that Pharnaces, following up his victory with insatiable cupidity, Bithynia and Cappadocia now occupied, was aiming at Lesser Armenia, and was drawing all the kings and chiefs in those parts to defection. Against this man he straightway set out with three legions, and near the city Zela, a huge battle having been fought, he annihilated his army by slaughter, and expelled him from Pontus.

Celeritatem eius uictoriae Romam nuntians, ad Amantium, suorum quendam amicorum, ita scripsit : Veni, uidi, uici. Quae uoces eo ipso, quod similiter desinunt, breuitati indicandae haud parum congruunt.

Announcing the celerity of that victory to Rome, to Amantius, one of his friends, he wrote thus : I came, I saw, I conquered. Which words, for this very reason that they end similarly, are not a little congruent to the indication of brevity.

LI. Secundum haec in Italiam traiecit Romamque uenit, in fine anni eius, quo dictator iterum creatus fuerat, quum quidem nunquam antea annua fuisset dictatura. Ad insequentem annum consul creatus est. Male autem audiuit, quod milites, cura ii per seditionem duos praetorios uiros Galbam et Cosconium interfecissent, uerbis tantum increpauit ita, uti pro militibus Quirites appellaret, iisque uiritim mille denarios et multum agri in Italia distribuit.

LI. After these things he crossed into Italy and came to Rome, at the end of that year in which he had been created dictator a second time, although indeed never before had the dictatorship been annual. For the following year he was created consul. However, he came into ill repute because, when the soldiers had, in a sedition, killed two men of praetorian rank, Galba and Cosconius, he rebuked them only with words, in such a way that he addressed them as Quirites instead of soldiers, and to them individually he distributed 1,000 denarii apiece and much land in Italy.

(2) Vitio ei dabatur etiam Dolabella insania, Amantii auaritia et Cornificii Antoniique temulentia, qui domum Pompeianam perscrutatus, tanquam haud satis laxe in ea posset habitare, demoliebatur atque mutabat. Haec enim Romanis erant molesta. Caesar tametsi neque ignoraret neque probaret, tamen ad institutum suum ut iis necessario uteretur administris necesse erat.

(2) It was also laid to his charge as a fault the insanity of Dolabella, the avarice of Amantius, and the temulence of Cornificius and of Antony, who, having scrutinized Pompey’s house, as though he could not dwell sufficiently spaciously in it, was demolishing and altering it. For these things were vexatious to the Romans. Caesar, although he neither was unaware nor did he approve, nevertheless, in accordance with his settled plan, was compelled to employ them as necessary ministers.

LII. Interim Cato et Scipio a Pharsalica pugna in Africam delati, auxilio regis Iubae magnas contraxerant copias. Aduersum hos expeditionem faciens Caesar, brumae tempore in Siciliam traiecit, utque suis spem omnem cunctationis praecideret ducibus, in littore suum posuit praetorium.

52. Meanwhile Cato and Scipio, carried into Africa from the Pharsalian battle, had assembled great forces with the aid of King Juba. Against these, undertaking an expedition, Caesar, at the time of midwinter, crossed over into Sicily, and, so as to preclude for his commanders every hope of delay, he set his praetorium (headquarters) on the shore.

Ventum nactus idoneum, cura tribus peditum millibus et paucis equitibus in Africam transmisit; hisque expositis, metuens maioribus suis copiis clam rursum auectus, eas iam transfretantes offendit, inque castra deduxit. (2) Ceterum audito hostes antiquo oraculo quodam fretos esse, quo Scipionum genus semper rem in Africa obtenturum praediceretur, Scipionem quendam Sallutionem cognomine, Africanorum genere ortum, sed hominem alioqui contemptum et abiectum, in proeliis primo loco, tanquam ducem constituit et sape inuadere hostem ac conserere manus coegit; incertum an hostium imperatorem Scipionem per iocum flocci faciendi gratia, an uero oraculi serio sibi uindicandi causa. Caesariani et frumenti et pabuli affligebantur penuria, cogebanturque algae marinae salsugine abluta et condimenti loco pauculo gramine admisto equos adducere.

Having gotten a suitable wind, he sent across into Africa, with the charge of three thousand infantry and a few cavalry; and when these had been put ashore, fearing for his larger forces, he secretly sailed back again, met them now crossing, and led them into the camp. (2) Moreover, on hearing that the enemies relied on a certain ancient oracle, by which it was foretold that the stock of the Scipios would always hold the affair in Africa, he set a certain Scipio, by the surname Sallution, sprung from the race of the Africans, but otherwise a man despised and abject, in the front rank in battles, as though a leader, and often compelled him to assail the enemy and to engage hand-to-hand; uncertain whether for the sake of making light of the enemy’s commander Scipio by a joke, or truly for the purpose of seriously claiming the oracle for himself. The Caesarians were afflicted by scarcity both of grain and of fodder, and were compelled to feed their horses on seaweed washed of its brininess and, in place of a condiment, with a little grass mixed in.

Numidiae enim celeres multique simul identidem irruebant et agris potiebantur. (3) Quodam etiam tempore, quum Caesaris equites otiosi Afrum quendam saltantem simul et tibia canentem ita uti admirationem mereretur, spectarent, eique intenti oblectationi equos pueris commisissent, Numidae subito circumfusi bonam eorum partem in ipso illo loco occiderunt, reliquos effuse ad castra fugientes insecuti eodem impetu irruperunt. Quod nisi Caesar ipse, cumque eo Asinius Polio ex castris auxilium suis tulissent, eorumque fugam inhibuissent, actum utique de eo bello fuisset.

For the Numidians, swift and numerous at once, kept repeatedly rushing in and getting possession of the fields. (3) Also at a certain time, when Caesar’s horsemen, at leisure, were watching a certain African dancing and at the same time playing the pipe in such a way as to merit admiration, and, intent upon this entertainment, had entrusted their horses to boys, the Numidians, suddenly surrounding them, killed a good portion of them in that very spot; pursuing the rest, fleeing in headlong disorder to the camp, they with the same impetus broke in. And if Caesar himself, and along with him Asinius Polio, had not brought aid to their men from the camp and checked their flight, it would assuredly have been all over with that war.

Iterum deinde alio proelio superiores hostes fuerunt, quum quidem Caesar aquiliferum fugientem fertur collo correptum obuertisse, ac dixisse : Hic sunt hostes.

Again then in another battle the enemies were superior, when indeed Caesar is said to have turned about a fleeing standard-bearer, having seized him by the neck, and to have said: Here are the enemies.

LIII. Scipio sane his successibus elatus statuit proelio rem committere, relictoque seorsum Afranio, seorsum Iuba, castra haud procul habentibus, super paludem prope urbem Thapsum castris munitionem erexit, quae omnibus ad pugnam ituris arcis et refugii loco esset. (2) Hoc illo agente Caesar, superatis incredibili celeritate siluestribus et quorum aditus occulti erant locis, exercitum eius partim cinxit, partim a fronte adortus est.

53. Scipio indeed, elated by these successes, resolved to commit the matter to battle; and with Afranius left separately, and Juba separately, having their camps not far off, he erected a fortification with camp-munitions above a marsh near the city Thapsus, which would be for all going to the fight as a citadel and a place of refuge. (2) While he was doing this, Caesar, the sylvan places and those whose approaches were hidden having been overcome with incredible celerity, partly encircled his army, partly assailed it from the front.

Eo fuso, impetum successus prosperi sequens, continuo Afranii castra capit, confestim etiam Numidica, dilapso fuga Iuba, diripit. Ita exigua unius diei parte trinis est potitus hostium castris, ac suorum non omnino quinquaginta amissis, hostium quinquaginta millia deleuit. (3) Hoc modo quidam de hac pugna tradunt; alii eum rei gestae interfuisse negant, sed quum iam ordines instrueret, correptum solito morbo tradunt, quem ut primum sensit ingruentem, priusquam penitus omnibus sensibus caperetur, quum iam inciperet tremere, in quoddam uicinum castellum abductum fuisse, atque ibi acquieuisse.

With him routed, following the impetus of prosperous success, he immediately seizes Afranius’s camp, and straightway also plunders the Numidian one, Juba having slipped away in flight. Thus, in a small part of a single day he gained possession of the enemy’s three camps, and with not altogether fifty of his own lost, he destroyed 50,000 of the enemy. (3) In this way some hand down the account of this battle; others deny that he was present at the action, but relate that when he was already arranging the ranks, he was seized by his customary malady, which, as soon as he sensed it encroaching, before he was completely deprived of all his senses, when he was already beginning to tremble, he was led off into a certain neighboring castellum, and there found repose.

Qui ex pugna fugerant, consulares et praetorii uiri, multi capti mortem sibi consciuerunt, permulti ad Caesarem abducti, iussu eius necati sunt.

Those who had fled from the battle—consular and praetorian men—many, when captured, took death upon themselves; a great many, brought to Caesar, were put to death by his order.

LIV. Catonem uiuum in potestatem suam redigere quammaxime cupiens, ad Uticam propere accessit, quam is urbem custodia tenens, proelio non interfuerat. Ut uero de morte eius, quam is sibi ipse attulerat, cognouit, haud dissimulauit grauiter id se ferre, tametsi cur ita, non constat.

54. Most eager to reduce Cato alive into his own power, he hastened to Utica, which city he, holding by a garrison, had not taken part in the battle. But when he learned of his death, which he had brought upon himself, he did not dissimulate that he bore it grievously, although why thus, it is not established.

Dixit qidem, Inuideo tibi mortem tuam, o Cato, quando tu etiam mihi salutem tuam inuidisti. (2) Sane oratio in Catonem iam mortuum scripta a Caesare, uidetur animi nequaquam reconciliati indicia continere. Qui enim pepercisset uiuo, in quem sensu iam omni priuatum tantum iras effuderit?

He did indeed say, “I begrudge you your death, O Cato, since you even begrudged me your safety.” (2) Truly, the oration against Cato, now dead, written by Caesar, seems to contain indications of a mind by no means reconciled. For who would have spared him when alive, against whom he has poured out such wrath when now deprived of all sensation?

Humanitas tamen, qua Ciceronem, Brutum, et mille alios, qui in bello contra ipsum fuerant, complexus est, argumento esse quibusdam uidetur, non odio uiri eam orationem, sed ciuilis contentionis causa scriptam. (3) Etenim Cicero laudationem Catonis composuit, quae ab eo est Cato inscripta, et a multis magno studio probata, ut par erat orationem a praestantissimo oratore de materia pulcherrima conditam. Id molestum erat Caesari, ut qui hominis propter se mortui laudibus se accusari putaret.

Nevertheless, the humanity with which he embraced Cicero, Brutus, and a thousand others who had been in war against himself, seems to some to be an argument that that speech was written not from hatred of the man, but for the sake of civil contention. (3) For indeed Cicero composed a laudation of Cato, which by him is inscribed Cato, and was approved by many with great zeal, as was fitting for a speech put together by a most preeminent orator on a most beautiful subject-matter. This was irksome to Caesar, as one who thought that by the praises of a man who had died on account of himself he was being accused.

Itaque multa in Catonem crimina collegit, libroque complexus est, cui titulus est Anticato. Utraque oratio propter et Catonem et Caesarem, multorum est applausu accepta.

And so he collected many charges against Cato, and encompassed them in a book whose title is Anticato (“Against Cato”). Both speeches, on account of both Cato and Caesar, were received with the applause of many.

LV. Enimuero ut rediit Romam Caesar ex Africa, primo uictoriam suam apud populum uerbis iactauit, predicans se tantum telluris subegisse, unde quotannis in publicum ducenta millia Atticorum medimnorum frumenti essent reditura, olei librae ter millies millenae. (2) Triumphos deinde duxit, Aegyptiacum, Ponticum, Africanum, hunc quidem non de Scipione, sed de Iuba rege scilicet, cuius etiam filius Iuba, puer admodum, in pompa tum ductus est, beatissimus eius captiuitatis nomine, qui per eam ex Numida atque barbaro eo deductus est, ut inter doctissimos Graecorum scriptores numeretur. (3), Secundum triumphos militibus amplissima dona dedit, populumque epulis et spectaculis recreauit.

55. Indeed, when Caesar returned to Rome from Africa, at first he vaunted his victory with words before the people, proclaiming that he had subdued so much earth, from which there would return each year into the public treasury two hundred thousand Attic medimni of grain, and three million pounds of oil. (2) Then he led triumphs, an Egyptian, a Pontic, an African—this last indeed not over Scipio, but of course over King Juba, whose son Juba also, a very young boy, was then led in the procession, most fortunate by reason of that captivity, who through it was brought down from being a Numidian and a barbarian to such a point that he is numbered among the most learned writers of the Greeks. (3), After the triumphs he gave the soldiers most ample donatives, and refreshed the people with banquets and spectacles.

Totum populum epulo excepit tricliniorum uiginti duobus millibus, et in honorem filiae Iuliae dudum mortuae gladiatorum et naumachiae spectacula edidit. Post haec populi recensio facta est et numerata sunt hominum centum quinquaginta millia, quum priori censu trecenta uiginti millia essent relata. Tantam ciuile bellum calamitatem inuexit, tantamque populi partem pessumdedit, ut ceteras reliquae Italiae et prouinciarum clades taceam.

He entertained the entire populace at a banquet with 22,000 triclinia, and in honor of his daughter Julia, long since dead, he produced spectacles of gladiators and of a naumachia. After these things a census of the people was held, and 150,000 persons were counted, whereas in the prior census 320,000 had been reported. So great a calamity did the civil war bring in, and so great a portion of the people did it ruin, that I am silent about the other disasters of the rest of Italy and of the provinces.

LVI. His omnibus perfectis consul quartum factus in Hispaniam contra filios Pompeii profectus est, qui iuuenes etiamnum aetate, admirandae tum multitudinis copias contraxerant, audaciamque imperio non indignam prae se ferebant; unde Caesar in summum deductus est discrimen. (2) Magnum ad urbem Mundam proelium depugnatum est.

56. With all these things completed, made consul for the fourth time, he set out into Spain against the sons of Pompey, who, still young in age, had assembled forces of a multitude to be admired, and displayed an audacity not unworthy of command; whence Caesar was brought into the supreme peril. (2) A great battle was fought at the city of Munda.

Quo in proelio Caesar quum pelli suos uideret et aegre resistere, per ordines et arma discurrens uociferatus est ad milites : Ecquid uos pudet? quin uos imperatorem uestrum corripitis et in manus puerorum traditis? Tandem magno conatu hostes fudit, et super triginta millia occidit, amissis suorum mille praestantissimis uiris.

In that battle, when Caesar saw his men being driven back and scarcely resisting, running through the ranks and amid the weapons he vociferated to the soldiers: Does it not shame you at all? Why don’t you seize your emperor and hand him over into the hands of boys? At length, with great effort, he routed the enemies, and slew over 30,000, with the loss of 1,000 of his own most preeminent men.

Discedens quidem a pugna suis dixit, se de uictoria saepe, tunc uero primum de uita sua dimicasse. Pugnatum est autem Liberalibus, quo die etiam Pompeius Magnus traditur ad bellum exiisse ante quadriennium. De filiis Pompeii iunior effugit ; maioris caput paucis post diebus Didius attulit.

Departing indeed from the battle, he told his men that he had often fought for victory, but then for the first time for his own life. However, the battle was fought on the Liberalia, on which day also Pompey the Great is reported to have gone out to war four years before. Of the sons of Pompey, the younger escaped ; the head of the elder Didius brought a few days later.

(3) Ultimum hoc bellorum a Caesare gestorum fuit. Triumphus autem ab eo bello apud Romanos summam commouit indignationem. Minime enim probabatur eum non exteris ducibus, aut barbaris regibus deuictis, sed optimi Romanorum calamitatibus icti genere et liberis exstirpatis, per triumphum patriae infortuniis insultare, iisque se rebus iactare, quas sola necessitas apud deos hominesque excusare possit, augebatque rei indignitatem, quod antehac neque nuntium neque literas publicas de ulla bello ciuili parta uictoria miserat, uerecundia gloriam tegens.

(3) This was the last of the wars waged by Caesar. The triumph, however, from that war stirred the utmost indignation among the Romans. For it was hardly approved that he, not with foreign leaders or barbarian kings conquered, but with the calamities of the best of the Romans, their stock and children extirpated, should by a triumph insult the misfortunes of his fatherland, and should vaunt himself on those deeds which necessity alone can excuse before gods and men; and the indignity of the matter was increased by the fact that previously he had sent neither a messenger nor public letters about any victory won in a civil war, veiling glory with modesty.

LVII. Veruntamen ad fortunam uiri inclinantes, recepto iam fraeno, et existimantes constituto unius in republica principatu respirare urbem ab intestinis malis posse, dictatorem eum perpetuum creauerunt; ea uero haud dubia erat tyrannis, adiecta ad summum imperium perpetuitate. Primes honores ei decernendos in senatu proposuit Cicero, quorum tamen magnitudo utcumque homini par esset ; his certatim alii maiora adiicientes effecerunt ut Caesar, ob fastum et nouitatem eorum quae in honorem eius decreta sunt, etiam mansuetissimis inuisus fieret.

57. Nevertheless, inclining to the man’s fortune, the rein now taken up again, and thinking that, with the principate of one established in the republic, the city could breathe again from internal evils, they created him dictator in perpetuity; and that was no doubtful tyranny, with perpetuity added to the supreme command. Cicero proposed in the senate that the first honors be decreed to him, whose magnitude, however, was in some measure proportionate to a man ; to these, others, adding greater things in rivalry, brought it about that Caesar, on account of the arrogance and the novelty of those things which were decreed in his honor, became hateful even to the most mild.

Quam ad rem inimici eius haud minus quam assentatores contulisse uidentur, id agentes, ut quam plurimas ac maximas eius inuadendi causas lcaberent. (2) Alioquin enim imposito a se iam bellis ciuilibus fine Caesar nullo se crimine obligauerat, uideturque haud absurde ternplum Clementiae ad agendas humanitati eius gratias decretum fuisse. Multis enim eorum qui bellum contra ipsum gessissent, ueniam dedit, quosdam etiam ad magistratus et honores prouexit, ut Cassium et Brutum, qui tum praetores erant.

To this matter his enemies seem to have contributed no less than his flatterers, doing this, namely, that they might scrape up as many and as very great causes as possible for assailing him. (2) Otherwise indeed, with the civil wars now brought to an end by himself, Caesar had involved himself in no charge, and it seems not absurd that a Temple of Clemency was decreed for rendering thanks to his humanity. For he gave pardon to many of those who had waged war against himself, and even advanced certain men to magistracies and honors, such as Cassius and Brutus, who at that time were praetors.

(3) Pompeii etiam statuas, quae deiectae erant, non est passus iacere, sed restituit, estque tunc a Cicerone dictum, Caesarem restituendis Pompeii imaginibus suas stabilire. Amicis quoque stipatoribus ipsum uti iubentibus, et operam suam offerentibus, recusauit, dicens, Praestat semel mortem oppetere, quam semper metuere. Itaque ciuium beneuolentia, quam honestissimam eandemque fidelissimam custodiam censebat, sese muniens, iterum populum epulis et frumentariis largitionibus refecit, milites coloniis deducendis, quarum nobilissimae erant Carthago et Corinthus, quae ut olim eodem tempore dirutae, ita tum simul instauratae sunt.

(3) He did not allow even the statues of Pompey, which had been cast down, to lie there, but restored them; and it was then said by Cicero that Caesar, by restoring Pompey’s images, was stabilizing his own. When even friends were bidding him to make use of bodyguards and were offering their service, he refused, saying, It is better to meet death once than to fear it always. And so, fortifying himself with the goodwill of the citizens—which he judged the most honorable and likewise the most faithful guard—he again refreshed the people with banquets and grain largesses, and by settling soldiers in colonies, the most renowned of which were Carthage and Corinth, which, just as once they had been destroyed at the same time, so then were restored together.

LVIII. Potentiores autem consulatus et praeturas insequentis anni promittendo, aliisque honoribus et dignitatibus deliniuit, omnibusque bonas spes proponens id studiose egit, ut uolentibus imperaret. Quin etiam mortuo Maximo consule quum una tantum adhuc dies consulatus gerendi superesset, Caninium Rebilum consulem ei suffecit.

58. Moreover, by promising the more powerful the consulships and praetorships of the following year, and by soothing them with other honors and dignities, and by proposing good hopes to all, he zealously brought it about that he ruled over those who were willing. Indeed, even when the consul Maximus died and only a single day of holding the consulship still remained, he substituted Caninius Rebilus as consul in his place.

Ad quem quum pro more frequentes salutatum accederent multi, Cicero, Properemus, inquit, priusquam magistratu homo abeat. (2) Enimuero ingenium eius magnificum atque honoris auidum ita erat, ut prosperi successus eum non ad fruenda ea quae adeptus erat auerterent, sed ad nouos maiorum rerum conatus incenderent, et quasi defunctus praesenti gloria esset, ad quaerendam recentem aliam incitarent, adeoque ipse secum, ueluti cum alio quopiam, contendebat, et acta agendis superare certatim laborabat. Eapropter tunc quoque animo res arduas conceperat, expeditionem in Parthos facere, his subactis per Hyrcaniam praeter Caspium mare et Caucasum Pontum in Scythiam proficisci, inde regiones Germaniae finitimas, ipsamque Germaniam percurrere, et per Gallias in Italiam reuerti, scilicet confecto expeditionem circulo, qui Oceano undique circumfuso terris concluderetur.

To whom, when many in crowds were approaching, as was the custom, to offer their salutations, Cicero said, "Let us hasten, before the man goes away from his magistracy." (2) Indeed his ingenium was magnificent and avid for honor in such a way that prosperous successes did not turn him aside to enjoy what he had acquired, but inflamed him to new endeavors of greater things, and, as if he were defunct of the present glory, incited him to seek another fresh one; and to such a degree he contended with himself, as with some other person, and strove in rivalry to surpass things done by things to be done. For this reason then also he conceived in mind arduous enterprises: to make an expedition against the Parthians; when these were subdued, to set out through Hyrcania, past the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus to the Pontus, into Scythia; thence to traverse the regions bordering on Germany and Germany itself, and through the Gauls to return into Italy—namely, the circle of the expedition being completed, which would be enclosed by the Ocean, poured around the lands on every side.

(3) lnterim opera Anieni statuerat lsthmum Corinthiacum perfodere Tiberim statim infra urbem profundo alueo intercipere atque ad Circaeum auertere, inque mare quod apud Anxur est deducere ; qua re et faciliorem et tutiorem mercaturae causa Romam petentibus nauigationem machinabatur. Praeterea paludes quae sunt apud Pomentum et Setiam siccare, et campum redigere multis hominum millibus colendum, aggeribus coniectis claustra mari quod Romae proximum est addere, littorisque Ostiae propinqui caecis et importuosis partibus expurgatis, portus ibi et stationes pro dignitate nauigationis condere. Atque haec quidem parabantur.

(3) Meanwhile he had planned works on the Anio: to bore through the Corinthian Isthmus, to intercept the Tiber immediately below the city in a deep channel and turn it aside toward Circaeum, and to conduct it into the sea which is by Anxur ; by this contrivance he was engineering a navigation both easier and safer for those seeking Rome for the sake of commerce. Furthermore, to drain the marshes which are near Pomentum and Setia, and to reduce the plain to be tilled by many thousands of people, to throw up embankments and add barriers to the sea which is nearest to Rome, and, the blind and harborless parts of the shore near Ostia being cleared out, to found harbors and stations there in keeping with the dignity of navigation. And these things indeed were being prepared.

LIX. Anni uero correctio et inaequalitatis fastorum emendatio scite ab eo excogitata et absoluta, usum habuit gratissimum. Non enim antiquitus modo Romani menses habuerunt ad anni circuitum non congruentes (quo efficiebatur ut sacra et feriae paulatim a constituto die decedentes, in diuersam adeo anni partem deferrentur), sed et solaris anni ratio, qua utebantur Caesaris aetate, omnibus praeter sacerdotes ignota erat, iique soli eam cognitam habentes, subito ac praesentiente nemine mensem intercalarem adiiciebant, qui et Mercedonius dicitur; hunc autem primus omnium Numa rex inuenisse traditur, auxilium ad errores circa orbium coelestium ad eadem signa reditum tollendos exiguum neque durabile, uti est in eius Vita a nobis demonstratum.

59. The correction of the year and the emendation of the inequality of the fasti, cleverly devised and brought to completion by him, had a most welcome use. For not only in antiquity did the Romans have months not congruent with the circuit of the year (whereby it came about that sacred rites and holidays, gradually departing from the appointed day, were carried into so different a part of the year), but even the reckoning of the solar year, which was in use in Caesar’s age, was unknown to all except the priests; and they alone, having that knowledge, would add, suddenly and with no one anticipating it, an intercalary month, which is also called Mercedonius. This, however, is said to have been first of all invented by King Numa—an aid for removing the errors concerning the return of the heavenly orbs to the same signs that was slight and not durable—as is shown by us in his Life.

(2) Sed Caesar praestantissimis philosophis atque mathematicis eam quaestionem proposuit, et ex methodis iam tum inuentis peculiarem quandam et absolutam emendationem composuit, qua etiamnum utuntur Romani, minusque reliquis temporum inaequalitate laborare uidentur. Neque tamen id institutum eorum qui potentiae ipsius aemulabantur reprehensiones effugit. Cicero certe orator, ut fertur, dicente quodam Lyram postridie orituram, Nimirum, inquit, ex edicto; tanquam hic quoque necessitatem hominibus Caesar imposuisset.

(2) But Caesar proposed that question to the most outstanding philosophers and mathematicians, and from the methods already then discovered he composed a certain peculiar and consummate emendation, which the Romans still use even now, and they seem, less than the rest, to labor under the inequality of times. Nor, however, did that ordinance escape the censures of those who vied with his power. Cicero the orator, to be sure, as it is said, when a certain person remarked that Lyra would rise on the next day, “Doubtless,” he said, “by edict”; as though here too Caesar had imposed necessity upon men.

0LX. Enimuero apertis capitalibusque in eum odiis ansam praebuit regni cupiditas, quae et prima causa plerisque fuit, et iam pridem in occulto infensis honestissima facti sui praescriptio. Et uero qui regium nomen Caesari quaerebant, rumorem diuulgauerant, Sibyllino oraculo indicari, Parthos a Romanis subigi nullo modo posse, nisi si cum rege suo in eos expeditionem facerent.

60. Indeed, the cupidity for kingship furnished a handle for open and capital hatreds against him, which was both the prime cause for many, and, for those long hostile in secret, the most honorable pretext of their deed. And indeed those who were seeking the royal name for Caesar had spread the rumor that, by a Sibylline oracle, it was indicated that the Parthians could in no way be subdued by the Romans, unless they should make an expedition against them with their own king.

Quin etiam ab Alba Romam descendentem ausi sunt regem salutare; quum quidem populo conturbato, ipse indignatus, Caesarem se, non regem uocari dixit; omniumque silentio facto, minime sereno hilarique uultu transiit. (2) Deinde quum essent in senatu honores ei immodici decreti, accedentibus ad ipsum pro rostris tum sedentem consulibus et praetoribus totoque senatu, non assurrexit, sed tanquam si cum priuatis hominibus colloqueretur, respondit eos honores diminutionem potius quam additionem requirere. Non senatum modo, sed et populum id offendit, ciuitatemque rati ignominia senatus ludibrio haberi, magna cum tristitia discesserunt, quotquot discedendi facultatem habuere; adeoque sensit Caesar indignationem eam, ut statim domum abiret, reductaque a collo ueste ad amicos uociferaretur, se paratum esse ad praebendum, si quis necare ipsum uellet, iugulum, ac postea morbum suum praetenderit facto, quo qui laborent, ii si stantes ad multitudinem uerba faciant, sensibus suis integris ac firmis uti nequeant, sed hi statim conturbentur, exagitenturque et uertiginibus corripiantur.

Nay, even as he was descending from Alba to Rome they dared to salute him as king; when indeed the populace was thrown into confusion, he, indignant, said that he was to be called Caesar, not king; and, silence having been made by all, with a countenance by no means serene or cheerful he passed by. (2) Then, when immoderate honors had been decreed to him in the senate, as the consuls and praetors and the whole senate approached him, then sitting before the rostra, he did not rise, but, as if he were conversing with private citizens, he replied that those honors required diminution rather than addition. That offended not only the senate but also the people, and, thinking that the commonwealth was being held to mockery by the ignominy of the senate, they departed with great sadness, all who had the ability to depart; and Caesar perceived that indignation to such a degree that he immediately went home, and, his garment drawn back from his neck, shouted to his friends that he was ready to offer his throat, if anyone wished to kill him, and afterward pleaded his sickness for the deed, a condition from which those who suffer, if while standing they address words to a multitude, cannot use their senses sound and firm, but straightway are disturbed, harried, and seized with fits of vertigo.

(3) Sed res nequaquam ita habuit, imo enim ferunt eum, quum assurgere senatui uellet, ab amico, aut uerius adulatore quodam suo, Cornelio Balbo, prohibitum, monente eum, ut se Caesarem esse meminisset, seque ut praestantiorem coli pateretur.

(3) But the matter was by no means thus; nay indeed they report that, when he wished to rise for the senate, he was prevented by a friend—or rather by a certain adulator of his, Cornelius Balbus—who warned him to remember that he was Caesar and to allow himself, as the more preeminent, to be honored.

LXI. Ad has inde offensas accessit circumscriptio tribunorum plebis. Res ea ita acta est.

61. To these offenses, then, there was added the circumvention of the tribunes of the plebs. The matter was carried out thus.

Lupercalibus (quae a pastoribus olim celebrata fuisse multi tradunt, et quidem habent nonnihil similitudinis cum Arcadicis Lycaeis) multi nobiles adolescentes et magistratum etiam gerentes discurrunt per urbem nudi et obuios per risum iocumque hirsutis scuticis feriunt; multae uero etiam nobiles matronae de industria occurrunt, manusque uerberibus tanquam in ludo literario praebent, ad facilem partum grauidis, ad foecunditatem sterilibus conducere id persuasae. (2) Ea tunc Caesar spectabat pro rostris sedens aurea sella, uestitu triumphali. Antonius etiam, ut tum erat consul, inter Lupercos currebat.

At the Lupercalia (which many hand down to have once been celebrated by shepherds, and indeed they have not a little similarity with the Arcadian Lycaea) many noble adolescents, and even men holding magistracy, run about through the city naked and strike those they meet, amid laughter and jest, with shaggy scourges; and many noble matrons too deliberately run to meet them, and offer their hands to the blows as in a school of letters, persuaded that this conduces to easy delivery for the pregnant, to fecundity for the barren. (2) This then Caesar was watching, sitting before the rostra on a golden chair, in triumphal attire. Antony also, as he was then consul, was running among the Luperci.

Is ut in forum peruenit, populusque ei locum adeundi dedit, diadema serto laureo circumplicatum Caesari porrexit; ad hoc ex composito plausus non alacris est editus. Caesare repudiante, uniuersus populus plausum dedit, iterumque Antonio diadema porrigente, pauci, Caesare non accipiente, uniuersi manus comploserunt. Hoc modo animis populi exploratis, Caesar surrexit, mandato ut sertum in Capitolium deferretur.

When he came into the forum and the people gave him space to approach, he extended to Caesar a diadem wrapped around with a laurel wreath; to this there was produced, by prearrangement, applause not eager. As Caesar refused, the whole populace gave applause, and again, when Antony proffered the diadem, a few [applauded]; with Caesar not accepting, all together clapped their hands. In this way, the spirits of the people having been tested, Caesar rose, with an order that the wreath be carried to the Capitol.

(3) Statuae autem ex eo Caesaris conspectae sunt regiis mitris redimitae ; has duo tribuni plebis, Flauius et Marullus, detraxerunt, inuentosque eos, qui primi Caesarem regem salutassent, in carcerem abduxerunt, populo sequente et Bruti nomen tribunis acclamante; nam Brutus fuit is, qui regia potestate euersa, rempublicam senatui et populo reddidit. Isis factis irritatus Caesar Flauio et Marullo magistratum abrogauit, et in accusandis iis multa contumeliose in populum faciens, Brutos eos et Cumanos appellabat.

(3) But from that time statues of Caesar were seen wreathed with royal fillets ; these two tribunes of the plebs, Flavius and Marullus, removed, and, having found those who had first hailed Caesar as king, they led them away to prison, the people following and acclaiming to the tribunes the name of Brutus; for Brutus was he who, the royal power overthrown, restored the commonwealth to the senate and the people. Irritated by these deeds, Caesar abrogated the magistracy of Flavius and Marullus, and, in accusing them, doing many things insultingly against the people, he called them Bruti and Cumaeans.

LXII. Proinde multitudo se ad M- Brutum confert, cuius paternum genus a magno illo Bruto uidebatur descendere, maternum ex Seruiliorum nobili stirpe, idemque consobrinus erat ac gener Catonis. Is Brutus quum natura uideretur ad tyrannidem destruendam incitari, honoribus tamen et muneribus a Caesare acceptis inhibebatur.

62. Accordingly the multitude betook themselves to M- Brutus, whose paternal lineage seemed to descend from that great Brutus, and whose maternal line was from the noble stock of the Servilii; and he was both a cousin and a son-in-law of Cato. This Brutus, although by nature he seemed to be incited to the destroying of tyranny, was nevertheless held back by honors and gifts received from Caesar.

Non modo enim a Pompeiana fuga apud Pharsalum Caesar eum seruauerat, multosque ipso deprecatore uenia donauerat, sed et plurimum ei habebat fidei, praeturamque omnium praestantissimam contulerat, et in quartum annum consulem destinauerat, praelatum in contentione Cassio. Ferunt enim Caesarem dixisse : Cassium iustiore sermone uti, se tamen Bruto non defuturum. Idem quibusdam accusantibus Brutum, iam tum conspiratione ea gliscente, animum non aduertit, quin et corpus suum manu tangens, delatoribus dixit : Hoc corpus praestolatur Brutus, censens eum ob uirtutem dignum imperio, atque huius tamen causa non ingratum neque improbum aduersus se futurum.

For not only had Caesar saved him from the Pompeian flight at Pharsalus, and, with himself as intercessor, had granted pardon to many, but he also had very great trust in him, had conferred upon him the most outstanding praetorship of all, and had designated him consul for the fourth year, preferred in the rivalry to Cassius. For they report that Caesar said: that Cassius used a more just discourse, yet that he himself would not be wanting to Brutus. The same man, when certain persons were accusing Brutus, already then as that conspiracy was swelling, did not take notice; nay even, touching his own body with his hand, he said to the delators: This body Brutus awaits—thinking him, on account of his virtue, worthy of imperium, and yet that, on this account, he would not prove ungrateful nor wicked against himself.

(2) Qui uero mutari statum reipublicae cupiebant et ad Brutum uel solum uel primum omnium respiciebant, non ausi uerbis eum tentare, noctu sellam eius et tribunal de quo praetor ius dicebat, schedis oppleuerunt, quibus fere haec erant inscripta : Dormis, Brute ; et, Non es Brutus. Quibus sentiens Cassius paulatim animum eius commoueri, magis quam ante institit hominemque instigauit, priuatim ipse etiam Caesari infensus ob causas in Bruti Vita indicatas. Sane et suspectus Caesari fuit, adeo ut hic ad amicos aliquando dixerit : Quid uobis uidetur Cassius?

(2) Those who indeed were desiring that the state of the commonwealth be changed, and were looking to Brutus either alone or first of all, not daring to test him with words, by night filled his chair and the tribunal from which as praetor he pronounced law with slips, on which for the most part these were inscribed: “You sleep, Brutus ;” and, “You are not Brutus.” Perceiving from these that his spirit was being gradually stirred, Cassius pressed him more than before and incited the man, he himself also privately hostile to Caesar for causes indicated in the Life of Brutus. Indeed he was also suspect to Caesar, to such an extent that this man at times said to his friends: “What is your opinion of Cassius?”

mihi quidem non admodum probatur, nimis enim pallet. Iterumque delatis apud eum Dolabella et Antonio, quasi ii res nouas machinarentur, dixisse fertur : se sibi haud magnopere a crassis istis crinitisque metuere, sed a pallidis istis atque macilentis, Cassium et Brutum notans.

To me indeed he is not very approved; for he is too pallid. And again, when Dolabella and Antonius had been denounced before him, as though they were machinating new measures, he is said to have remarked that he did not greatly fear for himself from those fat and long‑haired fellows, but from those pallid and gaunt ones—marking Cassius and Brutus.

LXIII. Verum enimuero fatum haud tam praeuideri quam euitari nequit, quando et mirabilia prodigia atque ostenta apparuisse dicunt. Fulgores quidem coelestes et strepitus nocturnos passim auditos et aues solitarias in forum delapsas referre, ut tantae rei signa, fortasse non conuenit; Strabo philosophus narrat, multos hommes ignitos per aerem deferri uisos, calonem quendam ex manu multum flammae effudisse uisumque ardere, sed flammis cessantibus nihil habuisse mali.

63. But indeed fate cannot so much be foreseen as avoided, since they say even wondrous prodigies and ostenta appeared. As for celestial fulgurations and nocturnal crashes heard everywhere, and solitary birds alighting into the forum, to report these as signs of so great a matter perhaps is not fitting; Strabo the philosopher relates that many fiery men were seen to be borne through the air, that a certain camp-servant was seen to pour out much flame from his hand and to be burning, but, the flames ceasing, to have had no harm.

Ipso Caesare immolante, hostiam corde carere uisam, idque pro graui ostento habitum, quod natura non ferat uti ullum animal sine corde sit. Iam illud a multis commemoratur, quendam ei ariolum praedixisse, ut Idibus Martiis magnum periculum caueret; Caesarem Idibus Martiis in senatum euntem ariolum salutasse eique illusisse dicentem : Idus Martius iam uenisse; ilium submissa uoce respondisse : Nae illae uenerunt, sed nondum praeteriuerunt. (2) Pridie eius diei quum apud M. Lepidum coenaret et accumbens, uti solebat, literis subscriberet, orta disquisitione, quodnam mortis genus esset optimum, omnibus anteuertit et subitam inopinatamque mortem optimam esse exclamauit.

With Caesar himself immolating, the victim was seen to lack a heart, and this was held as a grave portent, since nature does not allow that any animal should be without a heart. Already that other thing is recounted by many, that a certain soothsayer had foretold to him to beware great danger on the Ides of March; Caesar, going into the senate on the Ides of March, greeted the soothsayer and mocked him, saying: The Ides of March have already come; he, in a subdued voice, replied: Aye, they have come, but they have not yet passed by. (2) On the day before that day, when he was dining at M. Lepidus’s and, reclining as he was accustomed, was signing letters, an inquiry having arisen as to what kind of death is the best, he forestalled them all and exclaimed that a sudden and unanticipated death is the best.

More deinde suo cum uxore dormiens, omnibus ianuis et ualuis fenestrarum conclauis subito apertis, strepitu simul et luce perterritus, luna splendente uidit Calpurniam uxorem grauiter dormire et uoces obscuras gemitusque inarticulatos edere per somnum; ea enim imaginabatur per quietem se mariti trucidati corpus in ulnis tenere atque deplorare. (3) Quidam non hoc insomnium uxori eius obtigisse dicunt, sed, ut Liuius narrat, fuit quoddam pinnaculum quasi honoris causa et mandato senatus additum Caesaris aedibus, id per quietem uisa sibi est Calpurnia collapsum deflere ac lamentari. (4) Itaque facta luce Caesarem orauit, ut si omnino prodire cogeretur, at saltem senatui diem protraheret; quodsi ipsius insomnia prorsus uilipenderet, at aliis diuinationibus atque sacris futurum exploraret.

Then, sleeping in his wonted manner with his wife, with all the doors and the folding-shutters of the bedchamber’s windows suddenly opened, terrified at the noise and the light together, with the moon shining he saw his wife Calpurnia sleeping heavily and uttering obscure voices and inarticulate groans in her sleep; for in her rest she imagined that she held in her arms and bewailed the body of her slaughtered husband. (3) Some say that not this dream befell his wife, but, as Livy relates, there was a certain pinnacle, as it were for the sake of honor and by mandate of the senate, added to Caesar’s house, and that in her rest Calpurnia seemed to herself to bewail and lament its collapse. (4) And so, when light had come, she begged Caesar that, if he were altogether compelled to go forth, yet at least he would protract the day for the senate; but if he utterly made light of her dreams, then by other divinations and sacred rites he should explore the future.

Et iniecit quidem uiro nonnihil metus ac suspicionis, quod uxorem, quam hactenus nequaquam mulierum more superstitiosam expertus fuerat uehementius esse sollicitam cerneret. Quum uero aruspices etiam multis mactatis hostiis non potuisse litari nuntiarent, statuit misso Antonio senatum dimittere.

And indeed it cast into the man not a little fear and suspicion, because he saw his wife—whom hitherto he had found by no means superstitious in the manner of women—to be vehemently anxious. But when the haruspices too, even with many victims slaughtered, reported that it had not been possible to propitiate the gods, he resolved, after sending Antony, to dismiss the senate.

LXIV. Interim Decimus Brutus Albinus cognomine aduenit, cui Caesar tantum tribuebat, ut eum in testamento suo secundum haeredem scripserit. ls M- Bruti et Cassii coniurationis socius, metuens ne Caesare ilium diem euitante conatus ipsorum innotesceret, aruspices risit, Caesaremque uerbis increpuit, qui se ipsum incusationibus et calumniis senatorum obiiceret, quod iis illudere uideretur; etenim eos iussu ipsius conuenisse omnesque paratos esse decernere, ut ipse rex omnium quae extra Italiam sunt prouinciarum dicatur, ac terra marique, nisi quum in ltalia sit, diadema gestet; quodsi quis considentibus iis, in praesentia abire domum dixerit et rursum in curiam uenire, ubi meliora Calpurniae insomnia fuerint oblata, quosnam futuros inuidorum sermones putaret, aut quem amicorum eius audituros esse istos, ostendere conantem, haec non seruitutem esse et tyrannidem?

64. Meanwhile Decimus Brutus, surnamed Albinus, arrived, to whom Caesar attributed so much that he wrote him in his will as second heir. He, an associate of the conjuration of M- Brutus and Cassius, fearing lest, if Caesar evaded that day, their attempts would become known, laughed at the haruspices, and rebuked Caesar in words, for exposing himself to the accusations and calumnies of the senators, since he would seem to be mocking them; for indeed, at his order they had assembled, and all were prepared to decree that he himself be called king of all the provinces which are outside Italy, and that he wear the diadem by land and sea, except when he is in Italy; but if, with them seated, someone should say to go home for the present and to come back again into the curia when better dreams of Calpurnia had been offered, what sort of talk of the envious did he think would arise, or which of his friends did he suppose those men would be going to listen to, a man trying to show that these things are not servitude and tyranny?

si tamen omnino stet sententia diem istum abominari, rectius facturum, si ipse in curiam progressus senatui coram hoc indicet. (2) Simulque Caesarem manu apprehensum produxit. Haud procul foribus processerant, quum seruus quidam alienus Caesarem compellare cupiens adfuit, qui quum a turba Caesarem certatim sectantium retruderetur, in domum Caesaris tamen ui eluctando per cateruas peruenit, Calpurniaeque custodiendum sese tradidit, dum rediret Caesar habere se magnarum rerum indicia que ad eum deferret dicens.

if, however, the resolve altogether stands to abominate that day, he will act more rightly if he himself, having advanced into the curia, indicate this to the senate face to face. (2) And at once he led out Caesar, apprehended by the hand. They had proceeded not far from the doors, when a certain slave belonging to another appeared, wishing to accost Caesar; and although he was being shoved back by the crowd of those eagerly vying to follow Caesar, nevertheless by force, struggling through the ranks, he reached Caesar’s house, and handed himself over to Calpurnia for safe-keeping, saying that, until Caesar returned, he had indications of great matters which he would bring to him.

LXV. Artemidorus etiam Cnidius, Graecarum literarum magister, atque ob eam rem quorundam Brutianae conspirationis sociorum familiaris, ita ut pleraque eorum consilia haberet cognita, indicia rei in libello perscripta ad Caesarem attulit, quumque eum uideret libellos accipere ac suis famulis porrigere, proxime aggressus : Hunc, inquit, o Caesar, solus lege et celeriter; scriptas enim continet res magnas et tua plurimum referentes. (2) Acceptum Caesar quum saepius esset conatus legere, prohibitus interpellantium multitudine, in manibus retinuit solum omnium reliquorum, itaque seruans in curiam intrauit.

65. Artemidorus also of Cnidus, a master of Greek letters, and for that reason an intimate of certain associates of the Brutan conspiracy, so that he had known most of their counsels, brought to Caesar indications of the affair written out in a little book; and when he saw him receiving little books and handing them to his own servants, approaching very near he said: This one, O Caesar, read by yourself and quickly; for it contains great matters written, and things referring very much to you. (2) Having received it, although Caesar several times tried to read it, prevented by the multitude of those interrupting, he kept it in his hands, this alone of all the rest, and so preserving it he entered the curia.

Quidam libellum ab alio porrectum scribunt, ipsum Artemidorum tota uia aditu Caesaris exclusum et detrusum fuisse.

Some write that the note was proffered by another, and that Artemidorus himself was excluded from Caesar’s access and driven off along the whole way.

LXVI. Verum huiusmodi res etiam casu euenire possent. Eo autem in loco, ubi senatus est habitus et caedes peracta, Pompeii statua posita erat, ipsaque illa curia ab eodem Pompeio olim dedicata et ornamenti causa theatro adiecta, demonstrauit numine quopiam auctore uiamque quasi praeeunte ibi rem perpetratam fuisse.

66. Yet things of this kind could also occur by chance. But in that place where the senate had been held and the slaughter accomplished, Pompey’s statue had been set up, and that very curia, once dedicated by the same Pompey and, for ornament’s sake, adjoined to the theater, demonstrated—with some divinity as author and, as it were, the way going before—that the deed had been perpetrated there.

Itaque ergo Cassius etiam, tametsi ab Epicuri opinionibus haud abhorrens, fertur ante factum ad statuam Pompeii respexisse, tacitusque eum inuocasse, scilicet instante iam facinoris tempore animo diuinitus concitato, atque ea perturbatione prioribus sententiis excussis. (2) Antonium, Caesari fidum et robustum hominem, extra curiam Brutus Albinus detinuit, iniecto studiose longiori sermone. Caesare ingresso senatus assurrexit honoris causa, Bruti socii partim post sellam eius circumstiterunt, partim obuiam iuerunt, scilicet Tullio Cimbro pro fratre exsule deprecanti adfuturi, et usque ad sellam comitati sunt, preces suas pro eo interponentes.

And so, therefore, Cassius too, although by no means averse to the opinions of Epicurus, is said, before the deed, to have looked back at the statue of Pompey and, in silence, to have invoked him—his mind, with the time of the crime now pressing, divinely stirred, and by that perturbation his earlier convictions shaken off. (2) Antony, a man faithful and robust toward Caesar, Decimus Brutus Albinus detained outside the curia by studiously initiating a longer conversation. When Caesar entered, the senate rose for honor’s sake; Brutus’s associates partly stood around behind his chair, partly went to meet him—intending to support Tullius Cimber as he petitioned on behalf of his exiled brother—and they accompanied him all the way to his seat, interposing their prayers on his behalf.

Postquam consedit Caesar, et preces eorum repudiauit, acriusque urgentes singulatim obiurgauit, Tullius togam eius utraque manu conprehensam a collo detraxit: quod signum erat inferendarum Caesari manuum datum. Tum primus ei Casca pugione secundum ceruicem uulnus inflixit neque letale neque graue, nimirum initio magni facinoris consternatus; itaque Caesar obuertit se et arrepto pugione exclamauit Latinis uerbis, Scelerate Casca, quid agis? simul Casca Graeco sermone : Frater, auxiliare mihi.

After Caesar sat down and repudiated their petitions, and more sharply objurgated those urging him, one by one, Tullius, having seized his toga with both hands, dragged it down from his neck: which was the signal given for hands to be laid upon Caesar. Then Casca first inflicted a wound with a dagger along the nape—not lethal nor grave—evidently consternated at the outset of a great crime; and so Caesar turned about and, having snatched a dagger, cried out in Latin words, You scoundrel, Casca, what are you doing? at the same time Casca in the Greek tongue: Brother, help me.

(3) Hoc facto initio, qui non erant coniurationis conscii, ita sunt obstupefacti, ut neque fugere, neque opitulari, neque omnino uocem ullam edere auderent; coniurati gladium unusquisque suum strinxerunt. Ita Caesar circulo armatorum inclusus, et quocumque faciem conuerteret, ictibus occurrens in ferrumque offendens uultui oculisque intentatum, ferae instar inter manus omnium inuoluebatur : omnes enim oportuit participes caedis eius fieri, ideoque unum etiam uulnus ad inguen ei Brutus imposuit. (4) Perhibent Caesarem, quum reluctatus aduersus ceteros esset, uociferansque corpus hinc inde iactasset, ut uiderit Brutum gladium nudasse, toga caput obnupsisse, ac se siue fortuito, siue compulsum eo a percussoribus demisisse ad basin statuae Pompeianae.

(3) This deed being the beginning, those who were not privy to the conspiracy were so stupefied that they dared neither to flee, nor to bring help, nor at all to utter any voice; the conspirators each drew his sword. Thus Caesar, enclosed by a circle of armed men, and wherever he turned his face meeting blows and striking upon the steel, with nothing left unattempted against his face and eyes, like a wild beast was being rolled between the hands of all: for all had to become participants in his slaughter, and therefore Brutus also inflicted one wound upon his groin. (4) They report that Caesar, though he had struggled against the rest and, shouting aloud, had tossed his body this way and that, when he saw that Brutus had bared his sword, veiled his head with his toga, and let himself, whether by chance or forced thereto by the assailants, sink down to the base of Pompey’s statue.

Et hanc caedes ista cruore oppleuit, ut uideri possit ipse Pompeius supplicio inimici astitisse sub pedes eius collapsi, ac prae multitudine uulnerum calcitrantis. Viginti enim ac tria uulnera accepit, et multi, dum in unum corpus tot plagas ingerunt, sese mutuo consauciarunt.

And that statue this slaughter filled with gore, so that Pompey himself might seem to have stood by at the punishment of his enemy, beneath the feet of the one collapsed and, because of the multitude of wounds, kicking. For he received twenty-three wounds, and many, while they were thrusting so many blows into one body, mutually wounded one another.

LXVII. Caesare interfecto, quamuis in medium progressus Brutus esset uerborum de re acta faciendorum causa, manere tamen senatus non sustinuit, sed fuga se per fores proripuit, tumultuque et dubio metu populum repleuit, ita ut quidam aedes clauderent, alii mensis et tabernis relictis ad curiam accurrerent uisuri cadauer, quidam eo spectato inde procurrerent. Antonius et Lepidus praecipui Caesaris amici in alienas domos confugerunt.

67. With Caesar slain, although Brutus had progressed into the midst for the purpose of making a speech about the deed that had been done, nevertheless the senate could not endure to remain, but rushed out in flight through the doors, and with tumult and dubious fear it filled the populace, so that some shut their houses, others, leaving their tables and shops, ran to the Curia to see the cadaver, and some, having looked upon it, then ran out from there. Antony and Lepidus, Caesar’s principal friends, fled into other people’s houses.

(2) Brutus uero cum sociis, ut adhuc a caede calebant, nudos ostendentes gladios uniuersi a curia agmine facto Capitolium petierunt, non fugientium similes, sed hilari uultu et audaciam prae se ferente, populumque ad libertatem uocarunt, obuiorumque optimum quemque asciuerunt et in arcem euaserunt. Fuerunt qui se eis adiungerent, unaque ascenderent et societatis perpetratae caedis gloriam sibi arrogarent, ut Lentulus Spinther ac C- Octauius, qui paulo post poenas uanitatis suae dederunt, ab Antonio et iuniore Caesare necati, quum sane reliquis fidem eis derogantibus ne gloria quidem ea, ob quam mori cogebantur, perfrui eis contigisset : neque enim punientes illos, facti, sed uoluntatis causa supplicium eis imposuerunt. (3) Postridie Bruto cum suis digresso et in concione facti rationes edente, populus neque indignatione neque collaudatione facti uerba eius prosecutus est, altoque silentio ostendit se Caesaris miseratione, Brutique uerecundia teneri.

(2) But Brutus with his associates, as they were still hot from the slaughter, showing bare swords, all of them, with a column formed, made for the Capitol from the curia, not like fugitives, but with a cheerful countenance and carrying boldness before them, and they called the people to liberty, and enrolled each of the best of those who met them, and made it into the citadel. There were those who joined themselves to them, and ascended together, and arrogated to themselves the glory of partnership in the perpetrated slaughter, such as Lentulus Spinther and Gaius Octavius, who a little afterward paid the penalties of their vanity, slain by Antony and the younger Caesar, although indeed, with the rest detracting faith from them, it had not even befallen them to enjoy that very glory on account of which they were being compelled to die : for they imposed punishment on them, not as punishing the deed, but on account of the intention. (3) On the next day, Brutus having withdrawn with his men and, in an assembly, setting forth the reasons of the deed, the people accompanied his words with neither indignation nor commendation of the deed, and by deep silence showed that it was held fast by compassion for Caesar and by respect for Brutus.

At senatus obliuione iniuriarum, omniumque aduersus omnes pacificatione constituta, Caesari diuinos honores decreuerunt, utque nihil ne leuissimum quidem eorum quae is dictator sanxisset rescinderetur; Bruto quoque et sociis prouincias dignosque honores tribuerunt, iamque omnes existimabant pacatam esse rempublicam et optime omnia temperata.

But the senate, with forgetfulness of injuries and a pacification among all parties established, decreed divine honors to Caesar, and that nothing, not even the slightest, of those things which he, as dictator, had sanctioned should be rescinded; to Brutus also and his associates they granted provinces and worthy honors, and now all supposed that the republic was pacified and that everything was most excellently ordered.

LXVIII. Verum ubi testamentum Caesaris recitatum est quo haud uile munus uiritim is ciuibus legauerat, corpusque eius per forum ducto funere spectatum est, ut erat laniatum uulneribus, statim multitudo nulla decori, nulla ordinis habita ratione, subsellia a foro et cancellos et mensas ad cadauer Caesaris accumulauerunt, ibique statim cremauerunt; alii arreptis ardentibus facibus ad aedes interfectorum eius accurrerunt, iisque incendium minati sunt, alii per totam urbem discurrerunt, comprehendere eos et discerpere cupientes. Verum eorum nemo se obuiam tulit, sed tuto se quisque loco continebat.

68. But when Caesar’s testament was recited, in which he had bequeathed no paltry gift to the citizens man by man, and his body, the funeral having been led through the forum, was viewed, as it was lacerated with wounds, at once the multitude, having regard neither for decorum nor for order, heaped up benches from the forum and railings and tables at Caesar’s cadaver, and there on the spot they cremated it; others, having snatched ardent torches, ran to the houses of his slayers and threatened them with conflagration; others ran through the whole city, desiring to apprehend them and tear them to pieces. But none of them came forth to meet them; rather each kept himself in a safe place.

(2) Erat quidam amicus Caesaris, Cinna nomine. Is superiori nocte mirum somnium somniauerat : uisus erat sibi a Caesare ad coenam uocari, quamque detrectaret, ab eo manu abduci inuitus atque repugnans; tum uero audiens Caesarem in foro cremari, honoris causa eo se conferre coepit, tametsi et insomnio nonnihil terreretur et febricitaret. Hunc quum de multitudine unus uidisset, percontanti alteri quis esset indicauit, isque rursus alteri; ita confestim apud omnes rumor increbuit, esse hunc unum de interfectoribus Caesaris.

(2) There was a certain friend of Caesar, Cinna by name. The previous night he had dreamed a wondrous dream: he seemed to himself to be called by Caesar to supper, and when he refused, to be led away by the hand by him, unwilling and resisting; then indeed, on hearing that Caesar was being cremated in the forum, he began to betake himself thither for the sake of honor, although he was somewhat terrified by the dream and was feverish. When one from the multitude had seen him, he pointed him out to another who was inquiring who he was, and he in turn to another; thus immediately the rumor grew rife among all that this man was one of the slayers of Caesar.

Etenim fuit inter coniuratos alios quidam Cinna, quem illi tunc sibi offerri suspicantes, hominem in medio foro facto impetu discerpserunt. Hoc maxime facinore perterriti Cassius et Brutus, ceterique eorum socii, paucis interpositis diebus Roma discesserunt. Quae deinde egerint, quae pertulerint, utque perierint, in Bruto perscripsimus.

For indeed among the other conspirators there was a certain Cinna, whom they, suspecting at that time to be presented to them, after making a charge tore the man to pieces in the middle of the forum. Thoroughly terrified by this crime especially, Cassius and Brutus, and the rest of their associates, after a few days had intervened, departed from Rome. What they then did, what they endured, and how they perished, we have written in the Brutus.

LXIX. Mortuus est Caesar annos natus quinquaginta sex, quattuor post Pompeii obitum haud pluribus annis, quum uixdum potentiam et imperium, quod per omnem uitam ac tot pericula quaesiuisset, adeptus, nullum eius fructum, nisi nomen solum et inuidiosam gloriam apud ciues percepisset. Magnus tamen ille genius, qui uiuenti adfuit, mortuum quoque caedis ultor persecutus est, auctores eius terra marique agens et inuestigans eo usque, dum nemo eorum superesset, sed quicumque in facinoris partem uel facto uel consilio uenissent, poenas dedissent.

69. Caesar died aged fifty-six, no more than four years after Pompey’s death, when, scarcely having obtained the power and imperium which he had sought through his whole life and so many perils, he had perceived none of its fruit, save only the name and an invidious glory among his fellow citizens. Yet that great Genius which had been present to him while living pursued him even when dead as the avenger of the slaughter, driving and tracking the authors of it by land and sea, until none of them survived, but whoever had come into a share of the crime either by deed or by counsel paid the penalties.

(2) Ex iis quae hominibus euenerint, maximam Cassii casus admirationem meretur. Is enim uictus apud Philippos, eodem, quo Caesarem, gladio sese peremit. De ostentis diuinitus factis, cometa ingens, qui septem noctes a morte Caesaris splendidus apparuit, octaua euanuit, et solis obscuratio, qui totum ilium annum pallido et nihil rutilante circulo ortus est, imbecillumque a se et tenuem diffudit calorem, ita ut aer ob defectum eius a quo discernitur et temperatur caloris caliginosus grauisque fuerit, ob eiusque frigiditatem fruges non satis percoctae maturataeque.

(2) Of those things which have happened to men, the mischance of Cassius merits the greatest admiration. For he, defeated at Philippi, slew himself with the same sword with which he had Caesar. As for portents done divinely, a huge comet, which for seven nights from the death of Caesar appeared splendid, on the eighth vanished; and an obscuration of the sun, which for that whole year rose with a pallid circle and with nothing rutilant, and diffused from itself a feeble and thin warmth, such that the air, on account of the defect of that heat by which it is distinguished and tempered, was caliginous and heavy, and on account of its frigidity the crops were not sufficiently cooked and matured.

exstiterint. Maxime autem omnium Bruto ostentum factum demonstrauit, Caesaris caedem diis displicuisse. Exercitum enim Abydo in oppositam continentem traiecturus, quum in tentorio more suo non dormiens (3) (nemo enim, ut perhibent, imperator illo minus dormitauit, aut plus uigiliae temporis impendit), sed futura secum animo prospiciens quiesceret, uisus est sibi apud fores strepitum quendam exaudire, respiciensque lucerna iam deficiente terribilem imaginem uiri inusitatae magnitudinis horrendaeque forma uidit.

may have come to pass. But most of all a portent made for Brutus demonstrated that the slaughter of Caesar displeased the gods. For when he was about to ferry the army from Abydos to the opposite continent, while in his tent in his usual manner not sleeping (3) (for no general, as they report, slept less than that man, or expended more time on vigil), but, looking ahead in his mind to things to come, he was resting, he seemed to himself to hear at the doorway a certain clatter; and looking back, with the lamp now failing, he saw a terrible image of a man of unusual magnitude and of horrendous form.

Perterritus primum, ut nihil agere aut loqui, sed tacite astare lecto sensit, percontatus est : ecquis esset. Respondit ei umbra: Sum tuus, Brute, malus genius; apud Philippos me uidebis. Et Brutus tum constanti animo : Videbo, inquit; statimque recessit spectrum.

At first terrified, when he perceived that it did nothing nor spoke, but stood silently by the bed, he inquired: who it was. The shade answered him: I am your evil genius, Brutus; at Philippi you will see me. And Brutus then, with constant spirit: I shall see, he says; and immediately the specter withdrew.

(4) Postea temporis apud Philippos cum Antonio et Caesare congressus, priori proelio hostes a sua parte fudit et insecutus eos, castra Caesaris diripuit. Iterum pugnaturo spectrum idem noctu occurrit, tacitum tamen; itaque intelligens fato se urgeri, coniecit se ipsum in pugnae discrimen. Neque tamen in proelio cecidit, sed fusis suis in praeruptum quendam confugit locum, nudoque pectore in gladium incubuit, et quodam ex amicis, ut traditum est, ictui uehementiam addente mortuus est.

(4) Afterwards in time at Philippi, having engaged with Antony and Caesar, in the former battle he routed the enemies on his side and, pursuing them, plundered Caesar’s camp. As he was about to fight again, the same specter met him by night, silent however; and so, understanding that he was being pressed by fate, he cast himself into the hazard of the fight. Nor yet did he fall in the battle, but, his own men routed, he fled to a certain precipitous place, and with bare breast he fell upon his sword, and, with one of his friends, as it is handed down, adding vehemence to the thrust, he died.