Dio's Rome Volume II Part 13

[B.C. 47 (_a.u._ 707)]

[-44-] In this way Caesar overcame Egypt. He did not, however, make it subject to the Romans, but bestowed it upon Cleopatra, for whose sake he had waged the conflict. Yet, being afraid that the Egyptians might rebel again because they were delivered to a woman to rule them and that the Romans for this reason and because the woman was his companion might be angry, he commanded her to make her other brother partner of her habitation, and gave the kingdom to both of them,--at least nominally.

In reality Cleopatra alone was to hold all the power. For her husband was still a child and in view of Caesar's favor there was nothing that she could not do. Hence her living with her brother and sharing the sovereignty with him was a mere pretence which she accepted, whereas she actually ruled alone and spent her life in Caesar's company.

[-45-] She would have detained him even longer in Egypt or else would have at once set out with him for Rome, had not Pharnaces drawn Caesar most unwillingly from Afric's sh.o.r.es and hindered him from hurrying to Italy. This man was a son of Mithridates and ruled the Cimmerian Bosporus, as has been stated: it was his desire to win back again all his ancestral kingdom, and so he revolted just at the time of the quarrel between Caesar and Pompey, and, as the Romans had at that time found business, with one another and afterward were detained in Egypt, he got possession of Colchis without effort and, in the absence of Deiotarus, subjugated all of Armenia and some cities of Cappadocia and Pontus that were attached to the district of Bithynia. [-46-] While he was thus engaged Caesar himself did not stir,--Egypt was not yet settled and he had some hope of overcoming the man through others--but he sent Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus, a.s.signing him charge of Asia and ...[79]

legions. This officer added to his force Deiotarus and Ariobarzanes and marched straight against Pharnaces, who was in Nicopolis,--a city he had previously occupied. Indeed, he felt contempt for the barbarian, because the latter in terror of his presence was ready to agree to an armistice looking to an emba.s.sy, and so he would not conclude a truce with him, but attacked him and was defeated.

After that he had to retire to Asia, since he was no match for his conqueror, and winter was approaching. Pharnaces, greatly elated, joined to his cause nearly all of Pontus, captured Amisus, though it held out against him a long time, plundered the city and put to the sword all the young men in it. He then hastened into Bithynia and Asia with the same hopes as his father had harbored. Meanwhile, learning that Asander whom he had left as governor of the Bosporus had revolted, he no longer advanced any farther. For Asander, as soon as the advance of Pharnaces to a point distant from his own position was reported to him and it seemed likely that even if he should temporarily escape his observation with the greatest success, he would still not get out of it well later, rose against him, so as to do a favor to the Romans and to receive the government of the Bosporus from them. [-47-] This was the news on hearing which Pharnaces started against him, but the venture was in vain. For on ascertaining that Caesar was on the way and was hurrying into Armenia Pharnaces turned back and met him there near Zela. Now that Ptolemy was dead and Domitius vanquished Caesar had decided that delay in Egypt was neither fitting nor profitable for him, but set out from there and by using great speed reached Armenia. The barbarian, alarmed and fearing his quickness much more than his army, sent messengers to him before he drew near, making frequent propositions to see if in any way on any terms he could compromise the existing situation and escape. One of the princ.i.p.al pleas that he presented was that he had not cooperated with Pompey, and by this he hoped that he might induce the Roman general to grant a truce, particularly since the latter was anxious to hasten to Italy and Africa; and once he was gone he, Pharnaces, could easily wage war again. Caesar suspected this, and the first and second sets of envoys he treated with great kindness in order that he might fall upon the foe in a state quite unguarded, through hopes of peace: when the third deputation came he began to reproach him, one of his grounds of censure being that he had deserted Pompey, his benefactor. Then without delay, that very day and just as he was, Caesar marched forward and attacked him as soon as he came up to him; for a little while some confusion was caused by the cavalry and the scythe-bearing chariots, but after that he conquered the Asiatics with his heavy-armed soldiers. Pharnaces escaped to the sea and later forced his way into Bosporus, where Asander shut him up and killed him.

[-48-] Caesar took great pride in the victory,--more, indeed, than in any other, in spite of the fact that it had not been very glorious,--because on the same day and at one and the same hour he had come to the enemy, had seen him, and had conquered him. All the spoils, though of great magnitude, he bestowed upon the soldiers, and he set up a trophy to offset one which Mithridates had raised to commemorate the defeat of Triarius.[80] He did not dare to take down that of the barbarians because it had been dedicated to the G.o.ds of war, but by the erection of his own he overshadowed and to a certain extent demolished the other.

Next he gained possession of all the region belonging to the Romans and those bound to them by oath which Pharnaces had ravaged, and restored it to the individuals who had been dispossessed, except a portion of Armenia, which he granted to Ariobarzanes. The people of Amisus he rewarded with freedom, and to Mithridates the Pergamenian he gave a tetrarchy in Galatia with the name of kingdom and allowed him to wage war against Asander, so that by conquering him, because he had proved base toward his friend Mithridates might get Bosporus also.

[-49-] After accomplis.h.i.+ng this and bidding Domitius arrange the rest he came to Bithynia and from there to Greece, whence he sailed for Italy, collecting all the way great sums of money from everybody, and upon every pretext, just as before. On the one hand he levied all that individuals had promised in advance to Pompey, and on the other he asked for still more from outside sources, bringing some accusation against the places to justify his act. All votive offerings of Heracles at Tyre he removed, because the people had received the wife and child of Pompey when they were fleeing. Many golden crowns, also, commemorative of victories, he took from potentates and kings. This he did not out of malice but because his expenditures were on a vast scale and because he was intending to lay out still more upon his legions, his triumph, and everything else that could add to his brilliance. Briefly, he showed himself a money-getter, declaring that there were two things which created and protected and augmented sovereignties,--soldiers and money; and that these two were dependent upon each other. By proper support armies were kept together, and this support was gathered by the use of arms: and if either the one or the other were lacking, the second of them would be overthrown at the same time.

[-50-] These were ever his ideas and this his talk upon such matters.

Now it was to Italy he hurried and not to Africa, although the latter region had been made hostile to him, because he learned of the disturbances in the City and feared that they might get beyond his control. However, as I said, he did no harm to any one, except that there too he gathered large sums of money, partly in the shape of crowns and statues and the like which he received as gifts, and partly by borrowing not only from individual citizens but also from cities. This name (of borrowing) he applied to levies of money for which there was no other reasonable excuse; his exactions from his creditors were none the less unjustified and acts of violence, since he never intended to pay these loans. What he said was that he had spent his private possessions for the public good and it was for that reason he was borrowing.

Wherefore, when the mult.i.tude demanded that there should be an annulment of debts, he would not do it, saying; "I too am heavily involved." He was easily seen to be wresting away the property of others by his position of supremacy, and for this his companions as well as others disliked him. These men had bought considerable of the confiscated property, in some cases for more than its real value, in the hope of retaining it free of charge, but found themselves compelled to pay the full price.

[-51-] To such persons he paid no attention. However to a certain extent he did court the favor of the people as individuals. To the majority he allowed the interest they were owing, an act by which he had incurred the enmity of Pompey, and he released them from all rent for one year, up to the sum of five hundred denarii; furthermore he raised the valuations on goods in which it was allowable according to law for loans to be paid to their value at the time of payment, and this after having considerably lowered the price for the populace on all confiscated property. By these acts he gained the attachment of the people; and he won the affection of the members of his party and those who had fought for him also. For upon the senators he bestowed priesthoods and offices,--some which lasted for the rest of that year and some which extended to the following season. In order to reward a larger number he appointed ten praetors for the next year and more than the customary number of priests. To the pontifices and the augurs, of whom he was one, and to the so-called Fifteen he added one each, although he really wished to take all the priesthoods himself, as had been decreed. To the knights in his army and to the centurions and subordinate officers he gave among other rights the important privilege of choosing some of their own number for the senate to fill the places of those who had perished.

[-52-] The unrest of the troops, however, made trouble for him. They had expected to obtain great things, and finding their rewards not less, to be sure, than their deserts, but inferior to their expectations, they raised an outcry. The most of them were in Campania, being destined to sail on ahead to Africa. These nearly killed Sall.u.s.t, who had been appointed praetor so as to recover his senatorial office, and when escaping them he set out for Rome to lay before Caesar what was being done, a number followed him, sparing no one on their way, and killed among others whom they met two senators. Caesar as soon as he heard of their approach wished to send his guard against them, but fearing that it too might join the uprising he remained quiet until they reached the suburbs. While they waited there he sent to them and enquired what wish or what need had brought them. Upon their replying that they would tell him face to face he allowed them to enter the city unarmed, save as to their swords; these they were regularly accustomed to wear in the city, and they would not have submitted to laying them aside at this time.

[-53-] They insisted a great deal upon the toils and dangers they had undergone and said a great deal about what they had hoped and what they declared they deserved to obtain. Next they asked to be released from service and were very clamorous on this point, not because they wished to return to private life,--they were far from anxious for this since they had long become accustomed to the gains from warfare--but because they thought they would scare Caesar in this way and accomplish anything whatever, since his projected invasion of Africa was close at hand. He, however, made no reply at all to their earlier statements, but said merely: "Quirites,[81] what you say is right: you are weary and worn out with wounds," and then at once disbanded them all as if he had no further need of them, promising that he would give the rewards in full to such as had served the appointed time. At these words they were struck with alarm both at his att.i.tude in general and because he had called them _Quirites_ and not soldiers; and humiliated, in fear of suffering some calamity, they changed their stand, and addressed him with many entreaties and offers, promising that they would join his expedition as volunteers and would carry the war through for him by themselves. When they had reached this stage and one of their leaders also, either on his own impulse or as a favor to Caesar, had said a few words and presented a few pet.i.tions in their behalf, the dictator answered: "I release both you who are here present and all the rest whose years of service have expired. I really have no further need of you. Yet even so I will pay you the rewards, that no one may say that I after using you in dangers later showed myself ungrateful, even though you were unwilling to join my campaign while perfectly strong in body and able in other respects to prosecute a war." [-54-] said for effect, for they were quite indispensable to him. He then a.s.signed them all land from the public holdings and from his own, settling them in different places, and separating them considerable distances from one another, to the end that they should not inspire their neighbors with terror nor (dwelling apart) be ready for insurrection. Of the money that was owing them, large amounts of which he had promised to give them at practically every levy, he offered to discharge a part immediately and to supply the remainder with interest in the near future. When he had said this and so enthralled them that they showed no sign of boldness but expressed their grat.i.tude, he added: "You have all that is due you from me, and I will compel no one of you to endure campaigns any longer. If, however, any one wishes of his own accord to help me subjugate what remains, I will gladly receive him." Hearing this they were overjoyed, and all alike were anxious to join the new expedition.

[-55-]Caesar put side the turbulent spirits among them, not all, but as many as were moderately well acquainted with farming and so could make a living,--and the rest he used. This he did also in the case of the rest of his soldiers. Those who were overbold and able to cause some great evil he took away from Italy in order that they might not raise an insurrection by being left behind there; and in Africa he was glad to employ different men on different pretexts, for while he was making away with his opponents through their work, he at the same time got rid of them. Though he was the kindliest of men and most frequently did favors of various sorts for his soldiers and others, he bitterly hated those given to uprisings and punished them with extreme severity.

This he did in that year in which he ruled as dictator really for the second time and the consuls were said to be Calenus and Vatinius, appointed near the close of the season.[-56-] He next crossed over into, although winter had set in. And he had no little success when, somewhat later, he made an unlooked for attack on his opponents. On all occasions he accomplished a great deal by his rapidity and the unexpectedness of his expeditions, so that if any one should try to study out what it was that made him so superior to his contemporaries in warfare, he would find by careful comparison that there was nothing more striking than these two characteristics. Africa had not been friendly to Caesar formerly, but after Curio's death it became entirely hostile. Affairs were in the hands of Varus and Juba, and furthermore Cato, Scipio, and their followers had taken refuge there simultaneously, as I have stated.

After this they made common cause in the war, trained the land forces, and making descents by sea upon Sicily and Sardinia they hara.s.sed the cities and brought back s.h.i.+ps from which they obtained[82] arms andiron besides, which alone they lacked. Finally they reached such a condition of readiness and disposition that, as no army opposed them and Caesar delayed in Egypt and the capital, they despatched Pompey to Spain. On learning that the peninsula was in revolt they thought that the people would readily receive him as being the son of Pompey the Great; and while he made preparations to occupy Spain in a short time and set out from there to the capital, the others were getting ready to make the voyage to Italy. [-57-] At the start they experienced a slight delay, due to a dispute between Varus and Scipio about the leaders.h.i.+p because the former had held sway for a longer time in these regions, and also Juba, elated by his victory, demanded that he should have first place.

But Scipio and Cato reached an agreement as being far in advance of them all, the former in esteem, the latter in understanding, and won over the rest, persuading them to entrust everything to Scipio. Cato, who might have led the forces on equal terms with him or even alone, refused, first because he thought it a most injurious course in the actual state of affairs, and second, because he was inferior to the other in political renown. For he saw that in military matters the principle of preference to ex-magistrates as a matter of course had especial force, and therefore he willingly yielded him the command and furthermore delivered to him the troops that he had brought there. After this Cato made a request for Utica, which was suspected of favoring Caesar's cause and had come near having its citizens removed by the others on this account, and he received it to guard; and the whole country and sea in that vicinity was entrusted to his garrisons. The rest Scipio commanded as dictator. His very name was a source of strength to those who sided with him, since by some strange, unreasonable hope they believed that no Scipio could meet with misfortune in Africa.

[-58-] Caesar, when he learned this and saw that his own soldiers also were persuaded that it was so and were consequently afraid, took with him as an aid a man of the family of the Scipios who bore that name (he was otherwise known as Salvito)[83]and then made the voyage to Adrymetum, since the neighborhood of Utica was strictly guarded. His unexpected crossing in the winter enabled him to escape detection. When he had left his s.h.i.+p an accident happened to him which, even if some disaster was portended by Heaven, he nevertheless turned to a good omen.

Just as he was setting foot on land he slipped, and the soldiers seeing him fall on his face were disheartened and in their chagrin raised an outcry; but he never lost his presence of mind, and stretching out his hands as if he had fallen on purpose he embraced and kissed repeatedly the land, and cried with a shout: "I have thee, Africa!" His next move was an a.s.sault upon Adrymetum, from which he was repulsed and moreover driven violently out of his camp. Then he transferred his position to another city called Ruspina, and being received by the inhabitants set up his winter quarters there and made it the base for subsequent warfare.

DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY

43

The following is contained in the Forty-third of Dio's Rome:

How Caesar conquered Scipio and Juba (chapters 1-8). How the Romans got possession of Numidia (chapter 9). How Cato slew himself (chapters 10-13). How Caesar returned to Rome and celebrated his triumph and settled what business remained (chapters 14-21). How the Forum of Caesar and the Temple of Venus were consecrated (chapters 22-25). How Caesar arranged the year in its present fas.h.i.+on (chapters 26, 27). How Caesar conquered in Spain Gnaeus Pompey the son of Pompey (chapters 28-45). How for the first time consuls were appointed for not an entire year (chapters 46-48). How Carthage and Corinth received colonies (chapters 49, 50). How the Aediles Cereales were appointed (chapter 51).

Duration of time, three years, in which there were the following magistrates here enumerated.

C. Iulius C.F. Caesar, Dictator (III), with Aemilius Lepidus, Master of Horse, and Consul (III) with Aemilius Lepidus Cos. (B.C. 46--a.u. 708.)

C. Iulius Caesar, Dictator (IV), with Aemilius Lepidus, Master of Horse; also Consul (IV) alone. (B.C. 45--a.u. 709.)

C. Iulius Caesar, Dictator (V), with Aemilius Lepidus, Master of Horse, and Consul (V) with M. Antonius Cos. (B.C. 44--a.u. 710.)

(_BOOK 43, BOISSEVAIN_.)

[B.C. 46 (_a.u._ 708)]

[-1-] Such were his adventures at this time. The following year he became both dictator and consul at the same time (it was the third occasion on which he had filled each of the two offices), and Lepidus became his colleague in both instances. When he had been named dictator by Lepidus the first time, he had sent him immediately after the praetors.h.i.+p into Hither Spain; and when he returned he had honored him with triumphal celebrations though Lepidus had conquered no foes nor so much as fought with any,--the excuse being that he had been at the scene of the exploits of Longinus and of Marcellus. Yet he sent home nothing (if you want the facts) except what money he had plundered from the allies. Caesar besides exalting Lepidus with these honors chose him subsequently as his colleague in both the positions mentioned.

[-2-] Now while they were still in office, the populace of Rome became excited by prodigies. There was a wolf seen in the city, and a pig that save for its feet resembled an elephant was brought forth. In Africa, too, Petreius and Labienus who had observed that Caesar had gone out to villages after grain, by means of the Nomads drove his cavalry, that had not yet thoroughly recovered strength from its sea-voyage, in upon the infantry; and while as a result the force was in utter confusion, they killed many of the soldiers at close quarters. They would have cut down all the rest besides, who had crowded together on a bit of high ground, had they not been severely wounded. Even as it was, by this deed they alarmed Caesar considerably. When he stopped to consider how he had been tripped by a few, while expecting, too, that Scipio and Juba would arrive directly with all their powers, as they had been reported, he was decidedly in a dilemma, and did not know what course to adopt. He was not yet able to bring the war to a satisfactory conclusion; he saw, furthermore, that to stay in the same place was difficult because of the lack of subsistence even if the foe should keep away from his troops, and that to retire was impossible, with the enemy pressing upon him both by land and by sea. Consequently he was in a state of dejection.

[-3-] He was still in this situation when one Publius Sittius (if we ought to call it him, and not the Divine Power) brought at one stroke salvation and victory. This man had been exiled from Italy, and had taken along some fellow-exiles: after crossing over into Mauritania he collected a band and was general under Bocchus. Though he had no benefit from Caesar to start with, and although in general he was not known to him, he undertook to share in the war and to help him to overcome the existing difficulty. Accordingly he bore no direct aid to Caesar himself, for he heard that the latter was at a distance and thought that his own a.s.sistance (for he had no large body of troops) would prove of small value to him. It was Juba whom he watched start out on his expedition, and then he invaded Numidia, which along with Gaetulia (likewise a part of Juba's dominion) he harried so completely that the king gave up the project before him and turned back in the midst of his journey with most of his army; some of it he had sent off to Scipio. This fact made it as evident as one could wish that if Juba had also come up, Caesar would never have withstood the two. He did not so much as venture to join issue with Scipio alone at once, because he stood in terrible dread of the elephants (among other things), partly on account of their fighting abilities, but still more because they were forever throwing his cavalry into confusion. [-4-] Therefore, while keeping as strict a watch over the camp as he could, Caesar sent to Italy for soldiers and elephants. He did not count on the latter for any considerable military achievement (since there were not many of them) but intended that the horses, by becoming accustomed to the sight and sound of them, should learn for the future not to fear at all those belonging to the enemy.

Meanwhile, also, the Gaetulians came over to his side, with some others of the neighboring tribes. The latter's reasons for this step were, first,--the persuasion of the Gaetuli, who, they heard, had been greatly honored, and second, the fact that they remembered Marius, who was a relative of Caesar. When this had occurred, and his auxiliaries from Italy in spite of delay and danger caused by bad weather and hostile agents had nevertheless accomplished the pa.s.sage, he did not rest a moment. On the contrary he was eager for the conflict, looking to annihilate Scipio in advance of Juba's arrival, and moved forward against him in the direction of a city called Uzitta, where he took up his quarters on a certain crest overlooking both the city and the enemy's camp, having first dislodged those who were holding it. Soon after this he chased Scipio, who had attacked him, away from this higher ground, and by charging down behind him with his cavalry did some damage.

This position accordingly he held and fortified; and he took another on the other side of the city by dislodging Labienus from it; after which he walled off the entire town. For Scipio, fearing lest his own power be spent too soon, would no longer risk a battle with Caesar, but sent for Juba. And when the latter repeatedly failed to obey his summons he (Scipio) promised to relinquish to him all the rights that the Romans had in Africa. At that, Juba appointed others to have charge of the operations against Sittius, and once more started out himself against Caesar.

[-5-] While this was going on Caesar tried in every way to draw Scipio into close quarters. Baffled in this, he made friendly overtures to the latter's soldiers, and distributed among them brief pamphlets, in which he promised to the native that he would preserve his possessions unharmed, and to the Roman that he would grant immunity and the honors which he owed to his own followers. Scipio in like manner undertook to circulate both offers and pamphlets among the opposite party, with a view to making some of them his own: however, he was unable to induce any of them to change sides. Not that some of them would not have chosen his cause by preference, if any announcement similar to Caesar's had been made: their failure to do so was due to the fact that he promised them nothing in the way of a prize, but merely urged them to liberate the Roman people and the senate. And so, inasmuch as he chose a respectable proposition instead of something which would advantage them in the needs of the moment, he failed to gain the allegiance of a single one.

[-6-] While Scipio alone was in the camp, matters progressed as just described, but when Juba also came up, the scene was changed. For these two both tried to provoke their opponents to battle and hara.s.sed them when they showed unwillingness to contend; moreover by their cavalry they kept inflicting serious damage upon any who were scattered at a distance. But Caesar was not for getting into close quarters with them if he could help it. He stuck to his circ.u.mvallation, kept seizing provender as was convenient, and sent after other forces from home. When at last these reached him with much difficulty--(for they were not all together, but kept gathering gradually, since they lacked boats in which to cross in a body)--still, when in the course of time they did reach him and he had added them to his army, he took courage again; so much so, that he led out against the foe, and drew up his men in front of the trenches. Seeing this his opponents marshaled themselves in turn, but did not join issue with Caesar's troops. This continued for several days.

For aside from cavalry skirmishes of limited extent after which they would invariably retire, neither side risked any important movement.

[-7-] Accordingly Caesar, who bethought himself that because of the nature of the land he could not force them to come into close quarters unless they chose, started toward Thapsus, in order that either they might come to the help of the city and so engage his forces, or, if they neglected it, he might capture the place. Now Thapsus is situated on a kind of peninsula, with the sea on one side and a marsh stretching along on the other: between them lies a narrow, swampy isthmus so that one has access to the town from two directions by an extremely narrow road running along both sides of the marsh close to the surf. On his way toward this city Caesar, when he had come within these narrow approaches, proceeded to dig ditches and to erect palisades. And the others made no trouble for him (for they were not his match), but Scipio and Juba undertook to wall off in turn the neck of the isthmus, where it comes to an end near the mainland, dividing it into two portions by means of palisades and ditches.

[-8-] They were still at work, and accomplis.h.i.+ng a great deal every day (for in order that they might build the wall across more quickly they had a.s.signed the elephants to that portion along which a ditch had not yet been dug and on that account was somewhat accessible to the enemy, while on the remaining defences all were working), when Caesar suddenly attacked the others, the followers of Scipio, and with slings and arrows from a distance threw the elephants into thorough confusion. As they retreated he not only followed them up, but unexpectedly reaching the workers he routed them, too. When they fled into the redoubt, he dashed in with them and captured it without a blow.

Juba, seeing this, was so startled and terrified, that he ventured neither to come into close quarters with any one, nor even to keep the camp properly guarded, but fled incontinently homeward. So then, when no one would receive him, chiefly because Sittius had conquered all antagonists beforehand, he renounced all chances of safety, and with Petreius, who likewise had no hope of amnesty, in single conflict fought and died.

[-9-]Caesar, immediately after Juba's flight, captured the palisade and wrought a vast slaughter among all those that met his troops: he spared not even those who would change to his side. Next, meeting with no opposition, he brought the rest of the cities to terms; the Nomads whom he acquired he reduced to a state of submission, and delivered to Sall.u.s.t nominally to rule, but really to harry and plunder. This officer certainly did receive many bribes and make many confiscations, so that accusations were even preferred and he bore the stigma of the deepest disgrace, inasmuch as after writing such treatises as he had, and making many bitter remarks about those who enjoyed the fruits of others' labor, he did not practice what he preached. Wherefore, no matter how full permission was given him by Caesar, yet in his History the man himself had chiseled his own code of principles deep, as upon a tablet.

Such was the course which events took. Now as for These tribes in Libya, the Region surrounding Carthage (which we call also Africa) received the t.i.tle of Old, because it had been long ago subjugated, whereas the region of the Nomads was called New, because it had been newly captured.

Scipio, who had fled from the battle, chancing upon a boat set sail for Spain and Pompey. He was cast ash.o.r.e, however, upon Mauritania, and through fear of Sittius made way with himself.

[-10-] Cato, since many had sought refuge with him, was at first preparing to take a hand in affairs and to offer a certain amount of resistance to Caesar. But the men of Utica were not in the beginning hostile to Caesar, and now, seeing him victorious, would not listen to Cato. This made the members of the senate and the knights who were present afraid of arrest at their hands, and they took counsel for flight. Cato himself decide neither to war against Caesar--indeed, he lacked the power,--nor to give himself up. This was not through any fear: he understood well enough that Caesar would have been very ready to spare him for the sake of that reputation for humaneness: but it was because he was pa.s.sionately in love with freedom, and would not brook defeat in aught at the hands of any man, and regarded pity emanating from Caesar as more hateful than death.

He called together those of the citizens who were Present, enquired whither each one of them had determined to proceed, sent them forth with supplies for the journey, and bade his son betake himself to Caesar.

To the youth's interrogation, "Why then do you also not do so?" he replied:--"I, brought up in freedom, with the right of free speech, can not in my old age change and learn slavery instead; but you, who were both born and brought up under such a regime, you ought to serve the deity that presides over your fortunes."

[-11-] When he had done this, after sending to the people of Utica an account of his administration and returning to them the surplus funds, as well as whatever else of theirs he had, he was filled with a desire to depart previous to Caesar's arrival. He did not undertake any such project by day (for his son and others surrounding him kept him under surveillance), but when evening was come he slipped a tiny dagger secretly under his pillow, and asked for Plato's book on the Soul, [84]

which he had written out. This he did either endeavoring to divert the company from the suspicion that he had any sinister plan in mind, in order to render himself as free from scrutiny as possible, or else in the wish to obtain some little consolation in respect to death from the reading of it. When he had read the work through, as it drew on toward midnight, he stealthily drew out the dagger, and smote himself upon the belly. He would have immediately died from loss of blood, had he not by falling from the low couch made a noise and aroused those sleeping in the antechamber. Thereupon his son and some others who rushed in duly put back his bowels into his belly again, and brought medical attendance for him. Then they took away the dagger and locked the doors, that he might obtain sleep,--for they had no idea of his peris.h.i.+ng in any other way. But he, having thrust his hands into the wound and broken the st.i.tches of it expired.

Thus Cato, who had proved himself both the most democratic and the strongest willed of his contemporaries acquired a great glory even from his very death, so that he obtained the commemorative t.i.tle "of Utica,"

both because he had died, as described, in that city, and because he was publicly buried by the people.[-12-] Caesar declared that with him he was angry, because Cato had grudged him the distinction attaching to the preservation of such a man, but released his son and most of the rest, as was his custom: for some came over to him immediately of their own volition, and others later, so as to approach him after time should have somewhat blurred his memory. So these escaped, but Afranius and Faustus would not come to him of their own free will, for they felt sure of destruction. They fled to Mauritania, where they were captured by Sittius. Caesar put them to death without a trial, on the ground that they were captives for a second time.[85] And in the case of Lucius Caesar, though the man was related to him and came a voluntary suppliant, nevertheless, since he had fought against him straight through, he at first bade him stand trial so that the conqueror might seem to have some legal right on his side in condemning him: later Caesar shrank from killing him by his own vote, and put it off for the time, but afterward did slay him secretly. [-13-] Even among his own followers those that did not suit him he sacrificed without compunction to the opposing side in some cases, and in others by prearrangement caused them to perish in the actual conflicts, through the agency of their own comrades, for, as I have said, he did not take measures openly against all those that had troubled him, but any that he could not prosecute on some substantial charge he quietly put out of the way in some obscure fas.h.i.+on. And yet at that time he burned without reading all the papers that were found in the private chests of Scipio, and of the men who had fought against him he preserved many for their own sakes, and many also on account of their friends. For, as has been said, he allowed each of his fellow-soldiers and companions to ask the life of one man. He would have preserved Cato, too. For he had conceived such an admiration for him that when Cicero subsequently wrote an encomium of Cato he was no whit vexed,--although Cicero had likewise warred against him,--but merely wrote a short treatise which he ent.i.tled Anticato.

[-14-]Caesar after these events at once and before crossing into Italy disenc.u.mbered himself of the more elderly among his soldiers for fear they might revolt again. He arranged the other matters in Africa just as rapidly as was feasible and sailed as far as Sardinia with all his fleet. From that point he sent the discarded troops in the company of Graius Didius into Spain against Pompey, and himself returned to Rome, priding himself chiefly upon the brilliance of his achievements but also to some extent upon the decrees of the senate. For they had decreed that offerings should be made for his victory during forty days, and they had granted him leave to celebrate the previously accorded triumph upon white horses and with such lictors as were then in his company, with as many others as he had employed in his first dictators.h.i.+p, and all the rest, besides, that he had in his second. Further, they elected him superintendent of every man's conduct (for some such name was given him, as if the t.i.tle of censor were not worthy of him), for three years, and dictator for ten in succession. They moreover voted that he should sit in the senate upon the sella curulis with the acting consuls, and should always state his opinion first, that he should give the signal in all the horse-races, and that he should have the appointment of the officers and whatever else formerly the people were accustomed to a.s.sign. And they resolved that a representation of his chariot be set on the Capitol opposite Jupiter, that upon an image of the inhabited world a bronze figure of Caesar be mounted, holding a written statement to the effect that he was a demi-G.o.d, and that his name be inscribed upon the Capitol, in place of that of Catulus, on the ground that he had finished the temple, in the course of the construction of which he had undertaken to call Catulus to account. These are the only measures I have recorded, not because they were also the only ones voted,--for a vast number of things was proposed and of course ratified,--but because he disregarded the rest, whereas these he accepted.

[-15-] Now that they had been settled, he entered Rome, where he saw that the inhabitants were afraid of his power and suspicious of his designs as a result of which they expected to suffer many terrible evils such as had taken place before. Seeing also that on this account excessive honors had been accorded him, through flattery but not through good-will, he began to encourage the Romans and to inspire them with hope by the following speech delivered in the senate: