At any rate I caused its duration
to be shortened: formerly it had no limit; now I have reduced it to a
year.
to be shortened: formerly it had no limit; now I have reduced it to a
year.
Napoleon - History of Julius Caesar - a
1.
[1108] _Epistles to Atticus_, I. 18. --In allusion to a former law, we
read as follows: “The senators who have discussed the present law shall
be held, within ten days following the plebiscitum, to swear to maintain
it before the questor, in the treasury, in open day, and taking for
witnesses Jupiter and the gods Penates. ” (_Table of Bantia_, Klenze,
_Philologische Abhandlungen_, IV. 16-24. )
[1109] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 1.
[1110] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 2.
[1111] Ateius Capito, _Treatise on the Duties of the Senator_, quoted by
Aulus Gellius, IV. 10. --Valerius Maximus, II. 10, § 7.
[1112] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 4.
[1113] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 21.
[1114] Appian, _Civil Wars_, II. 11.
[1115] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 6.
[1116] The consuls, prætors, and generally all those who presided at an
assembly of the people, or even who attended in quality of magistrates,
had a right of veto, founded on popular superstition. This right was
exercised by declaring that a celestial phenomenon had been _observed_
by them, and that it was no longer permitted to deliberate. _Jupiter
darting thunder or rain, all treating on affairs with the people must be
stopped_; such was the text of the law, religious or political,
published in 597. It was not necessary that it should thunder or rain,
in fact; the affirmation of a magistrate qualified to _observe the sky_
being enough. (Cicero, _Oration for Sextius_, 15. --_Oration on the
Consular Provinces_, 19. )--(Asconius, _In Piso_, p. 9, ed.
Orelli. )--(Orelli, Indices to his edition of Cicero, VIII.
126. )--(_Index Legum_, articles _Laws Ælia_ and _Fusia_. )
[1117] Valerius Maximus, III. vii. 6.
[1118] Plutarch, _Cato_, 37.
[1119] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 7. --“The Campanian law contains a provision
which compels the candidates to swear, in the assembly of the people,
that they will never propose anything contrary to the Italian
legislation upon property. All have sworn, except Laterensis, who
preferred desisting from the candidature for the tribuneship to taking
the oath, and much gratitude has been shown to him for it. ” (Cicero,
_Epistles to Atticus_, II. 18. )
[1120] This appears from the words of Dio Cassius (XXXVIII. 1). Several
scholars are unwilling to admit the existence of two agrarian laws; yet
Cicero, in his letter to Atticus (II. 7), written in April, announces
that the twenty commissioners are named. In this first law (_Familiar
Letters_, XIII. 4), he mentions the _ager_ of Volaterra, which was
certainly not in Campania. In another letter of the beginning of May
(_Letters to Atticus_, II. 16), he speaks of Campania for the first
time, and says that Pompey had approved the first agrarian law. Finally,
in that written in the month of June (_Letters to Atticus_, II. 18), he
speaks of the oath taken to the agrarian laws. Suetonius (_Cæsar_, 20)
and Appian (_Civil Wars_, II. 10) mention the Julian agrarian laws in
the plural. Titus Livius (_Epitome of Book_ CIII. ) speaks of the _leges
agrariæ_ of Cæsar; and Plutarch (_Cato_, 38) says positively: “Elated
with this victory, Cæsar proposed a new law, to share among the poor and
indigent citizens nearly all the lands of Campania;” and previously, in
chapter 36, the same author had said of Cæsar, that he proposed laws for
the distribution of the lands to the poor citizens. Thus there were
positively two laws published at an interval of some months; and if the
object of the second was the distribution of the _ager Campanus_, the
first had without doubt a more general character. Dio Cassius, after
having related the proposal of the first agrarian law, in which Campania
was excepted, says similarly: “Besides, the territory of Campania was
given to those who had three children or more” (XXXVIII. 7).
[1121] Cicero, _Second Philippic_, 15.
[1122] _Liber Coloniarum_, edit. Lachmann, pp. 220, 235, 239, 259,
260. --Several of these colonies probably dated no farther back than the
dictatorship of Cæsar.
[1123] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 20. --Velleius Paterculus, II. 44. --Appian,
_Civil Wars_, II. 10. --“Capua mura ducta colonia Julia Felix, jussu
imperatoris Cæsaris a xx. viris deducta. ” (_Liber Coloniarum_, I. p.
231, edit. Lachmann. )
[1124] Cicero, _Second Philippic_, 39.
[1125] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 1. --Cicero, _Epistles to Atticus_, II. 19.
[1126] Cicero, _Epistles to Atticus_, II. 7.
[1127] Cicero, _Oration on the Consular Provinces_, 17.
[1128] Cicero, _Familiar Letters_, VIII. 10.
[1129] Appian, _Civil Wars_, II. 13. --_Scholiast_ of Bobbio on
Cicero. --Cicero, _Oration for Plancus_, p. 261, edit. Orelli.
[1130] Cicero, _Oration for Plancus_, 14.
[1131] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 1. --Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 20.
[1132] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 20. --Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 7. --Appian, II.
13.
[1133] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 20.
[1134] Cicero, _Second Oration on the Agrarian Law_, 16. --_Scholiast_ of
Bobbio on Cicero’s _Oration In Rege Alexandrino_, p. 350, edit. Orelli.
This Ptolemy Alexas, or Alexander, appears to have been a natural son of
Alexander I. , younger brother of Ptolemy Lathyrus, who is also called
Ptolemy Soter II. ; in this case he would be, though illegitimate, cousin
of Ptolemy Auletes. He had succeeded Alexander II. , legitimate son of
Alexander I. , who married his step-mother, Berenice, only legitimate
daughter of Ptolemy Soter II.
[1135] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 16. --The King of Egypt gave
nearly 6,000 talents (35 millions of francs) to Cæsar and Pompey.
(Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 14. )
[1136] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 54. --Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 12. --Cæsar’s
expressions (_War of Alexandria_, 33, and _Civil Wars_, III. 107) show
the friendship of Ptolemy Auletes for the Romans.
[1137] Cæsar, _War in Gaul_, I. 35. --Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 35. --Dio
Cassius, XXXVIII. 34.
[1138] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 20.
[1139] Plutarch, _Cato_, 38. --“It was about the sixth hour, when, in the
course of my speech in court for C. Antonius, my colleague, I deplored
certain abuses which prevailed in the State, and which seemed to me to
be closely allied to the case of my unfortunate client. Some
ill-disposed persons reported my words to certain men of high position
in different terms to those I had used; and on the same day, at the
ninth hour, the adoption of Clodius was carried. ” (Cicero, _Oration for
his House_, 16. )
[1140] Appian, _Civil Wars_, II. 14. --Dio Cassius, XXXVIII.
12. --Plutarch, _Pompey_, 50. --Cicero, 39.
[1141] Cicero, _Oration for Sestius_, _loc. cit. _
[1142] Cicero, writing to Atticus about Cæsar’s first consulship, says:
“Weak as he was then, Cæsar was stronger than the entire State. ”
(_Letters to Atticus_, VII. 9. )
[1143] “Bibulus thought to render Cæsar an object of suspicion. He made
him more powerful than before. ” (Velleius Paterculus, II. 44. )
[1144] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 20.
[1145] Cæsar rode an extraordinary horse, whose feet were shaped almost
like those of man, the hoof being divided in such a way as to present
the appearance of fingers. He had reared this horse, which had been
foaled in his house, with great care, for the soothsayers had predicted
the empire of the world to its master. Cæsar was the first who tamed it:
before that time the animal had allowed no one to mount it. Finally, he
erected a statue to its honour in front of the Temple of Venus
Genetrix. ” (Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 61. )
[1146] “I am quite of opinion that the right of absent candidates to
solicit the offices of the priesthood may be examined by the comitia,
for there is a precedent for that. C. Marius, whilst in Cappadocia, was
elected augur by the law Domitia, and no subsequent law has forbidden
the course; for the Julian Law, the last on the subject of the
priesthood, states: ‘He who is a candidate, or he whose right to become
one has been examined. ’” (Cicero, _Letters to Brutus_, I. 5. )
[1147] Cicero, _Oration against Piso_, 37.
[1148] Cicero, _Oration on the Consular Provinces_, 4. --_Oration against
Piso_, 21.
[1149] Cicero, _Oration against Piso_, 16; _Letters to Atticus_, V. 10,
16, 21. --_First Philippic_, 8.
[1150] “You have obtained,” says he, addressing Piso, “a consular
province with no other limits than those of your cupidity, in
contravention of the law of your son-in-law. In fact, by a law of
Cæsar’s, as just as it is salutary, free nations used to enjoy a full
and entire liberty. ” (Cicero, _Oration against Piso_, 16. )
[1151] Cicero, _Oration against Piso_, 25; _Familiar Letters_, II. 17;
_Letters to Atticus_, VI. 7. --“I will add, that if the ancient right and
antique usage were still in force, I should not have had to send in my
accounts till after I had discoursed about them, and had them audited
with good humour, and the formalities that our intimacy justifies. What
I would have done in Rome according to the old fashion, I ought,
according to the Julian law, to have done in my province: send in my
accounts on the spot, and only deposit in the treasury an exact copy of
them. I was obliged to follow the provisions of the law. The accounts,
duly audited and compared, were to be deposited in two towns, and I
chose, in the terms of the law, the two most important--Laodicea and
Apamea. . . . I come to the point of the customary presents. You must know
that I had only included in my list the military tribunes, the prefects,
and the officers of my house (_contubernales_). I even made a blunder. I
thought I was allowed any latitude in point of time. Subsequently I
learnt that the request ought to be sent in during the thirty days
allowed for the settling the accounts. Happily, all is safe as far as
the centurions are concerned, and the officers of the household of the
military tribunes--for the law is silent in regard to the latter.
(Cicero, _Familiar Letters_, V. 20. )
[1152] Dio Cassius, XLIII. 25.
[1153] “I say nothing about the golden crown that has been so long a
torture to you, in your uncertainty as to whether you ought to demand it
or not. In fact, the law of your son-in-law forbad them to give it or
you to receive it, unless your triumph had been granted you. ” (Cicero,
_Oration against Piso_, 37. )
[1154] Cicero, _Oration against Piso_, 37; _Letters to Atticus_, V. 10,
16.
[1155] “Take notice, I beg you, that I paid into the hands of the
farmers of the revenues at Ephesus twenty-two millions of sestertii, a
sum to which I have a perfect right, and that Pompey laid hands on the
whole. I have made up my mind on the subject--whether wisely or unwisely
matters not. ” (Cicero, _Oration against Piso_, xxxvii. 16. )
[1156] Cicero, _Oration against Piso_, 21.
[1157] Cicero, _Oration on the Consular Provinces_, 2, 3, 4.
[1158] “Is there any position more disgraceful than that of a senator,
who goes on a mission without the slightest authorisation on the part of
the State? It was this kind of mission that I should have abolished
during my consulship, even with the consent of the Senate,
notwithstanding the apparent advantages it held out, had it not been for
the senseless opposition of a tribune.
At any rate I caused its duration
to be shortened: formerly it had no limit; now I have reduced it to a
year. ” (Cicero, _On Laws_, III. 8. )
[1159] “Moreover, I think that the Julian law has defined the duration
of free embassies: nor will it be easy to extend it. ” (Cicero, _Letters
to Atticus_, XV. 11. --Orelli, _Index Legum_, p. 192. )
[1160] Cicero, _Oration for Sestius_, 64. “Liberty torn from nations and
individuals on whom it had been conferred, and whose right had been, by
virtue of the Julian law, so precisely ensured against all hostile
attacks. ” (_Oration against Piso_, xxxvii. 16. )
[1161] Cicero, _Familiar Letters_, VIII. 8. --Several of its chapters
have been preserved in the Digest, XLVIII. tit. XI. It is generally
supposed that the fragments inscribed on a tablet of brass in the Museum
of Florence belong to the same law. They have been published by Maffei,
_Museum Veronese_, p. 365, No. 4, and commented on by the celebrated
Marini, in his work on the Monuments of the Fratres Arvales, I. pp. 39,
40, note 44.
[1162] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 42.
[1163] Cicero, _Oration for Rabirimus Postumus_, 4, 5.
[1164] Fragments of the Julian law, _De Repetundis_, preserved in the
_Digest_, XLVIII. tit. XI.
The law is directed against those who, holding a magistracy, an embassy,
or any other office, or forming part of the attendants of these
functionaries, receive money.
They may receive money to any amount from their cousins, their still
nearer relatives, or their wives.
The law includes those who have received money: For speaking in the
Senate or any public assembly; for doing their duty or absenting
themselves from it; for refusing to obey a public order or for exceeding
it; for pronouncing judgment in a criminal or a civil case, or for not
pronouncing it; for condemning or acquitting; for awarding or
withdrawing the subject of a suit; for adjudging or taking an object in
litigation; for appointing a judge or arbitrator, changing him, ordering
him to judge, or for not appointing him or changing him, and not
ordering him to judge; for causing a man to be imprisoned, put in irons,
or set at liberty; for accusing or not accusing; for producing or
suppressing a witness; for recognising as complete an unfinished public
work; for accepting wheat for the use of the State without testing its
good quality; for taking upon himself the maintenance of the public
buildings without a certificate of their good condition; for enlisting a
soldier or discharging him.
All that has been given to the proconsul or prætor contrary to the
provisions of the present law, cannot become his by right of possession.
Sales and leases are declared null and void which have been made, for a
high or a low price, with a view to right of possession by a third.
The magistrates are to abstain from all extortion, and receive as salary
but 100 pieces of gold each year.
The action will lie equally against the heirs of the accused, but only
during the year succeeding his death.
No one who has been condemned under this law can be either judge,
accuser, or witness.
The penalties are exile, banishment to an island, or death, according to
the gravity of the offence.
[1165] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 8.
[1166] _De alternis consiliis rejiciendis. _ (Cicero, _Oration against
Vatinius_, 11. --_Scholiast_ of Bobbio, pp. 321, 323, edit. Orelli. )
[1167] “The citizens who, not being of your order, cannot, thanks to the
Cornelian laws, challenge more than three judges. ” (Cicero, _Second
Prosecution of Verres_, II. 31. )
[1168] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 28.
[1169] Cicero, _Familiar Letters_, XIII. 35. “Pompeius Strabo, father of
Pompey the Great, re-peopled Comum. Some time after, Scipio established
3,000 inhabitants there; and, finally, Cæsar sent 5,000 colonists, the
most distinguished of whom were 500 Greeks. ” (Strabo, cxix. )
[1170] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 18. --Dio Cassius, XXVIII. 8.
[1171] Dio Cassius, XXVIII. 8. --Orelli, _Index Legum_, 178.
[1172] Cicero, in his speech against Vatinius, chap. 6, while
reproaching him for having disregarded the auspices, exclaims, “I ask
you first, Did you refer the matter to the Senate, as Cæsar did? ”
“It is true that Cæsar’s acts were, for the benefit of peace, confirmed
by the Senate. ” (Cicero, _Second Philippic_, 39. )
[1173] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 7.
[1174] Cæsar conducted himself with discretion in his consulship. ”
(Plutarch, _Crassus_, 17. )
[1175] “Cæsar published laws that were worthy, I will not say of a
consul, but of the most reckless of tribunes. ” (Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 14. )
[1176] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, VI. 1. --Appian, _Civil Wars_, II.
13.
[1177] Pliny, _Natural History_, XXXIII. 5. Drumann and Mommsen, like
ourselves, refuse their belief to the assertion of Suetonius.
[1178] Plutarch, _Lucullus_, 9.
[1179] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 22. --Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 14.
[1180] Appian, _Civil Wars_, II. 14.
[1181] Plutarch, _Crassus_, 17.
[1182] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 8. --Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 22.
[1183] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 22.
[1184] Dio Cassius, XL. 34.
[1185] “At the gladiatorial exhibition, the giver of the show and all
his attendants were received with hisses. At the games in honour of
Apollo, the tragedian Diphilus made a pointed allusion to our friend
Pompey in the lines--
‘’Tis through our woes that thou art great,’
and was called upon to repeat the words a thousand times. Further on,
the whole assembly cheered him when he said,
‘A time shall come, when thou thyself shall weep
That power of thine so deadly’--
for they are lines that one might have said were written on purpose by
an enemy of Pompey. The words
‘If nought, nor law, nor virtue, hold thee back,’
were received with a tempest of acclamation. When Cæsar arrived, he met
with a cold reception. Curio, on the other hand, who followed him, was
saluted with a thousand cheers, as Pompey used to be in the prosperous
times of the Republic. Cæsar was annoyed, and sent off a courier post
haste to Pompey, who is, they say, at Capua. ” (Cicero, _Letters to
Atticus_, II. 19. )
[1186] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 9.
[1187] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 19.
[1188] “Bibulus is being praised to the skies, I know not why; but he is
being extolled as the one only man who, by temporising, has restored the
State. Pompey, my idol Pompey, has been his own ruin, as I own with
tears to-day; he has no one left who takes his side from affection. I am
afraid that they will find it necessary to resort to intimidation. For
my own part, I forbear, on the one hand, to combat their views on
account of my ancient friendship with them, and, on the other, my
antecedents prevent my approving of what they are about; I preserve a
middle course. The humour of the people is best seen in the theatres. ”
(Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 19, 20, 21. )
[1189] “He keeps prudently in the background, but hopes at a safe
distance to witness their shipwreck. ” (Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II.
7. )
[1190] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 13.
[1191] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 17.
[1192] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 20, 21.
[1193] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 11.
[1194] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 24.
[1195] Cicero, _Oration against Vatinius_, II. --Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 9.
[1196] Scholiast of Bobbio, _On Cicero’s Oration against Vatinius_, p.
330, edit. Orelli. --Appian, _Civil Wars_, II. 2 and 12.
[1197] Appian, _Civil Wars_, II. 12.
[1198] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 20.
[1199] “He (Ariovistus) knows, by his messengers, that in causing
Cæsar’s death he would gratify a number of great persons at Rome; his
death would win to him their favour and friendship. ” (Cæsar, _War in
Gaul_, I. 44. )
[1200] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 12.
[1201] Cicero, _Letters to Quintus_, I. 2.
[1202] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 23; _Nero_, 2.
[1203] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 23. --Valerius Maximus, III. 7, 9.
[1204] “At the gates of Rome there was a general invested with authority
for many years, and at the head of a great army (_cum magno exercitu_).
Was he my enemy? I do not say he was; but I knew that when people said
so, he was silent. ” (Cicero, _Oration after his return in the Senate_,
13. )--“Oppressos, vos, inquit, tenebo _exercitu_ Cæsaris. ” (Cicero,
_Letters to Atticus_, II. 16. )--“Clodius said he would invade the curia
at the head of Cæsar’s _army_. ” (Cicero, _Oration on the Report of the
Augurs_, 22. )--“Cæsar had already gone out of Rome _with his army_. ”
(Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 17. )
[1205] In several passages of Cicero’s letters, Cæsar is represented as
being at the gates of Rome at the head of his army; and yet we know from
his _Commentaries_ that at the beginning of the war in Gaul he had only
four legions, of which one was stationed on the banks of the Rhine, and
the three others at Aquileia, in Illyria. It is, therefore, difficult to
understand how he could have had troops at the gates of Rome, of which
no further mention is made in the course of his campaign. The only way
to reconcile the letters of Cicero with the _Commentaries_ is to allow
that Cæsar, independently of the legions which he found beyond the
frontiers of Italy, summoned to his standard the volunteers and Roman
veterans who were desirous of following him. Mustering at the gate of
Rome, they joined him subsequently in Gaul, and were merged in the
legions. This supposition is the more probable, as in 700, when the
question of re-electing Pompey and Crassus to the consulship was brought
forward, Cæsar sent to Rome a great number of soldiers to vote in the
comitia. Hence, as all the legions had been recruited in Cisalpine Gaul,
the inhabitants of which did not possess the right of Roman city, he
must have had other Roman citizens in his army. Besides, if Cæsar
appealed to the veterans, he only followed the example of nearly all the
Roman generals, and among others of Scipio, Flamininus, and Marius. In
fact, when Cornelius Scipio departed for the war against Antiochus,
there were five thousand volunteers at the gates of Rome--citizens as
well as allies--who had served in all the campaigns of his brother,
Scipio Africanus. (Titus Livius, XXXVII. 4. )--“When Flamininus left to
join the legions in Macedonia, he took with him three thousand veterans
who had fought against Hannibal and Hasdrubal. ” (Plutarch, _Flamininus_,
III. )--“Marius, before leaving for the war against Jugurtha, appealed to
all the bravest soldiers of Latium. He knew most of them for having
served under his eyes, and the rest by reputation. By force of
solicitation, he obliged even the veterans to go with him. ” (Sallust,
_War of Jugurtha_, LXXXIV. )
[1206] “At the present moment he (Clodius) is agitating and raging; he
knows not what he wants; he makes hostile demonstrations on this side
and on that, and seems to intend to leave to chance where he shall
strike. When he gives a thought to the unpopularity of the present state
of things, you would say he was going to fly at the authors of it; but
when he sees on which side are the means of action and the armed force,
he turns round against us. ” (Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 22. )
[1207] These clubs (_collegia compitalitia_) had an organisation which
was almost military, divided into districts, and composed exclusively of
the proletaries. (See Mommsen, _Roman History_, III. 290. )--“The slaves
enrolled under pretence of forming corporations. ” (Cicero, _Oration
after his return in the Senate_, 13. )
[1208] An exception, however, was made in 690, in favour of the
corporations of artisans. (Asconius, _In Pisone_, IV. p. 7; _In
Corneliana_, p. 75, edit. Orelli. )
[1209] Cicero, _Oration against Piso_, 4. --Asconius, _On the Oration of
Cicero against Piso_, pp. 7, 8, edit. Orelli. --Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 13.
[1210] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 13.
[1211] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 17.
[1212] “I receive from Cæsar the most flattering invitations, asking me
to join him as lieutenant. ” (Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 17. )--“He
has got my enemy (Clodius) transferred to the plebeian order: either
because he was irritated to see that even his kindness could not
persuade me to join his side, or because he yielded to the urgency of
others. My refusal could not have been regarded as an insult, for
subsequently to it he advised me, nay, even entreated me, to serve him
as lieutenant.
[1108] _Epistles to Atticus_, I. 18. --In allusion to a former law, we
read as follows: “The senators who have discussed the present law shall
be held, within ten days following the plebiscitum, to swear to maintain
it before the questor, in the treasury, in open day, and taking for
witnesses Jupiter and the gods Penates. ” (_Table of Bantia_, Klenze,
_Philologische Abhandlungen_, IV. 16-24. )
[1109] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 1.
[1110] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 2.
[1111] Ateius Capito, _Treatise on the Duties of the Senator_, quoted by
Aulus Gellius, IV. 10. --Valerius Maximus, II. 10, § 7.
[1112] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 4.
[1113] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 21.
[1114] Appian, _Civil Wars_, II. 11.
[1115] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 6.
[1116] The consuls, prætors, and generally all those who presided at an
assembly of the people, or even who attended in quality of magistrates,
had a right of veto, founded on popular superstition. This right was
exercised by declaring that a celestial phenomenon had been _observed_
by them, and that it was no longer permitted to deliberate. _Jupiter
darting thunder or rain, all treating on affairs with the people must be
stopped_; such was the text of the law, religious or political,
published in 597. It was not necessary that it should thunder or rain,
in fact; the affirmation of a magistrate qualified to _observe the sky_
being enough. (Cicero, _Oration for Sextius_, 15. --_Oration on the
Consular Provinces_, 19. )--(Asconius, _In Piso_, p. 9, ed.
Orelli. )--(Orelli, Indices to his edition of Cicero, VIII.
126. )--(_Index Legum_, articles _Laws Ælia_ and _Fusia_. )
[1117] Valerius Maximus, III. vii. 6.
[1118] Plutarch, _Cato_, 37.
[1119] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 7. --“The Campanian law contains a provision
which compels the candidates to swear, in the assembly of the people,
that they will never propose anything contrary to the Italian
legislation upon property. All have sworn, except Laterensis, who
preferred desisting from the candidature for the tribuneship to taking
the oath, and much gratitude has been shown to him for it. ” (Cicero,
_Epistles to Atticus_, II. 18. )
[1120] This appears from the words of Dio Cassius (XXXVIII. 1). Several
scholars are unwilling to admit the existence of two agrarian laws; yet
Cicero, in his letter to Atticus (II. 7), written in April, announces
that the twenty commissioners are named. In this first law (_Familiar
Letters_, XIII. 4), he mentions the _ager_ of Volaterra, which was
certainly not in Campania. In another letter of the beginning of May
(_Letters to Atticus_, II. 16), he speaks of Campania for the first
time, and says that Pompey had approved the first agrarian law. Finally,
in that written in the month of June (_Letters to Atticus_, II. 18), he
speaks of the oath taken to the agrarian laws. Suetonius (_Cæsar_, 20)
and Appian (_Civil Wars_, II. 10) mention the Julian agrarian laws in
the plural. Titus Livius (_Epitome of Book_ CIII. ) speaks of the _leges
agrariæ_ of Cæsar; and Plutarch (_Cato_, 38) says positively: “Elated
with this victory, Cæsar proposed a new law, to share among the poor and
indigent citizens nearly all the lands of Campania;” and previously, in
chapter 36, the same author had said of Cæsar, that he proposed laws for
the distribution of the lands to the poor citizens. Thus there were
positively two laws published at an interval of some months; and if the
object of the second was the distribution of the _ager Campanus_, the
first had without doubt a more general character. Dio Cassius, after
having related the proposal of the first agrarian law, in which Campania
was excepted, says similarly: “Besides, the territory of Campania was
given to those who had three children or more” (XXXVIII. 7).
[1121] Cicero, _Second Philippic_, 15.
[1122] _Liber Coloniarum_, edit. Lachmann, pp. 220, 235, 239, 259,
260. --Several of these colonies probably dated no farther back than the
dictatorship of Cæsar.
[1123] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 20. --Velleius Paterculus, II. 44. --Appian,
_Civil Wars_, II. 10. --“Capua mura ducta colonia Julia Felix, jussu
imperatoris Cæsaris a xx. viris deducta. ” (_Liber Coloniarum_, I. p.
231, edit. Lachmann. )
[1124] Cicero, _Second Philippic_, 39.
[1125] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 1. --Cicero, _Epistles to Atticus_, II. 19.
[1126] Cicero, _Epistles to Atticus_, II. 7.
[1127] Cicero, _Oration on the Consular Provinces_, 17.
[1128] Cicero, _Familiar Letters_, VIII. 10.
[1129] Appian, _Civil Wars_, II. 13. --_Scholiast_ of Bobbio on
Cicero. --Cicero, _Oration for Plancus_, p. 261, edit. Orelli.
[1130] Cicero, _Oration for Plancus_, 14.
[1131] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 1. --Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 20.
[1132] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 20. --Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 7. --Appian, II.
13.
[1133] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 20.
[1134] Cicero, _Second Oration on the Agrarian Law_, 16. --_Scholiast_ of
Bobbio on Cicero’s _Oration In Rege Alexandrino_, p. 350, edit. Orelli.
This Ptolemy Alexas, or Alexander, appears to have been a natural son of
Alexander I. , younger brother of Ptolemy Lathyrus, who is also called
Ptolemy Soter II. ; in this case he would be, though illegitimate, cousin
of Ptolemy Auletes. He had succeeded Alexander II. , legitimate son of
Alexander I. , who married his step-mother, Berenice, only legitimate
daughter of Ptolemy Soter II.
[1135] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 16. --The King of Egypt gave
nearly 6,000 talents (35 millions of francs) to Cæsar and Pompey.
(Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 14. )
[1136] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 54. --Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 12. --Cæsar’s
expressions (_War of Alexandria_, 33, and _Civil Wars_, III. 107) show
the friendship of Ptolemy Auletes for the Romans.
[1137] Cæsar, _War in Gaul_, I. 35. --Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 35. --Dio
Cassius, XXXVIII. 34.
[1138] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 20.
[1139] Plutarch, _Cato_, 38. --“It was about the sixth hour, when, in the
course of my speech in court for C. Antonius, my colleague, I deplored
certain abuses which prevailed in the State, and which seemed to me to
be closely allied to the case of my unfortunate client. Some
ill-disposed persons reported my words to certain men of high position
in different terms to those I had used; and on the same day, at the
ninth hour, the adoption of Clodius was carried. ” (Cicero, _Oration for
his House_, 16. )
[1140] Appian, _Civil Wars_, II. 14. --Dio Cassius, XXXVIII.
12. --Plutarch, _Pompey_, 50. --Cicero, 39.
[1141] Cicero, _Oration for Sestius_, _loc. cit. _
[1142] Cicero, writing to Atticus about Cæsar’s first consulship, says:
“Weak as he was then, Cæsar was stronger than the entire State. ”
(_Letters to Atticus_, VII. 9. )
[1143] “Bibulus thought to render Cæsar an object of suspicion. He made
him more powerful than before. ” (Velleius Paterculus, II. 44. )
[1144] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 20.
[1145] Cæsar rode an extraordinary horse, whose feet were shaped almost
like those of man, the hoof being divided in such a way as to present
the appearance of fingers. He had reared this horse, which had been
foaled in his house, with great care, for the soothsayers had predicted
the empire of the world to its master. Cæsar was the first who tamed it:
before that time the animal had allowed no one to mount it. Finally, he
erected a statue to its honour in front of the Temple of Venus
Genetrix. ” (Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 61. )
[1146] “I am quite of opinion that the right of absent candidates to
solicit the offices of the priesthood may be examined by the comitia,
for there is a precedent for that. C. Marius, whilst in Cappadocia, was
elected augur by the law Domitia, and no subsequent law has forbidden
the course; for the Julian Law, the last on the subject of the
priesthood, states: ‘He who is a candidate, or he whose right to become
one has been examined. ’” (Cicero, _Letters to Brutus_, I. 5. )
[1147] Cicero, _Oration against Piso_, 37.
[1148] Cicero, _Oration on the Consular Provinces_, 4. --_Oration against
Piso_, 21.
[1149] Cicero, _Oration against Piso_, 16; _Letters to Atticus_, V. 10,
16, 21. --_First Philippic_, 8.
[1150] “You have obtained,” says he, addressing Piso, “a consular
province with no other limits than those of your cupidity, in
contravention of the law of your son-in-law. In fact, by a law of
Cæsar’s, as just as it is salutary, free nations used to enjoy a full
and entire liberty. ” (Cicero, _Oration against Piso_, 16. )
[1151] Cicero, _Oration against Piso_, 25; _Familiar Letters_, II. 17;
_Letters to Atticus_, VI. 7. --“I will add, that if the ancient right and
antique usage were still in force, I should not have had to send in my
accounts till after I had discoursed about them, and had them audited
with good humour, and the formalities that our intimacy justifies. What
I would have done in Rome according to the old fashion, I ought,
according to the Julian law, to have done in my province: send in my
accounts on the spot, and only deposit in the treasury an exact copy of
them. I was obliged to follow the provisions of the law. The accounts,
duly audited and compared, were to be deposited in two towns, and I
chose, in the terms of the law, the two most important--Laodicea and
Apamea. . . . I come to the point of the customary presents. You must know
that I had only included in my list the military tribunes, the prefects,
and the officers of my house (_contubernales_). I even made a blunder. I
thought I was allowed any latitude in point of time. Subsequently I
learnt that the request ought to be sent in during the thirty days
allowed for the settling the accounts. Happily, all is safe as far as
the centurions are concerned, and the officers of the household of the
military tribunes--for the law is silent in regard to the latter.
(Cicero, _Familiar Letters_, V. 20. )
[1152] Dio Cassius, XLIII. 25.
[1153] “I say nothing about the golden crown that has been so long a
torture to you, in your uncertainty as to whether you ought to demand it
or not. In fact, the law of your son-in-law forbad them to give it or
you to receive it, unless your triumph had been granted you. ” (Cicero,
_Oration against Piso_, 37. )
[1154] Cicero, _Oration against Piso_, 37; _Letters to Atticus_, V. 10,
16.
[1155] “Take notice, I beg you, that I paid into the hands of the
farmers of the revenues at Ephesus twenty-two millions of sestertii, a
sum to which I have a perfect right, and that Pompey laid hands on the
whole. I have made up my mind on the subject--whether wisely or unwisely
matters not. ” (Cicero, _Oration against Piso_, xxxvii. 16. )
[1156] Cicero, _Oration against Piso_, 21.
[1157] Cicero, _Oration on the Consular Provinces_, 2, 3, 4.
[1158] “Is there any position more disgraceful than that of a senator,
who goes on a mission without the slightest authorisation on the part of
the State? It was this kind of mission that I should have abolished
during my consulship, even with the consent of the Senate,
notwithstanding the apparent advantages it held out, had it not been for
the senseless opposition of a tribune.
At any rate I caused its duration
to be shortened: formerly it had no limit; now I have reduced it to a
year. ” (Cicero, _On Laws_, III. 8. )
[1159] “Moreover, I think that the Julian law has defined the duration
of free embassies: nor will it be easy to extend it. ” (Cicero, _Letters
to Atticus_, XV. 11. --Orelli, _Index Legum_, p. 192. )
[1160] Cicero, _Oration for Sestius_, 64. “Liberty torn from nations and
individuals on whom it had been conferred, and whose right had been, by
virtue of the Julian law, so precisely ensured against all hostile
attacks. ” (_Oration against Piso_, xxxvii. 16. )
[1161] Cicero, _Familiar Letters_, VIII. 8. --Several of its chapters
have been preserved in the Digest, XLVIII. tit. XI. It is generally
supposed that the fragments inscribed on a tablet of brass in the Museum
of Florence belong to the same law. They have been published by Maffei,
_Museum Veronese_, p. 365, No. 4, and commented on by the celebrated
Marini, in his work on the Monuments of the Fratres Arvales, I. pp. 39,
40, note 44.
[1162] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 42.
[1163] Cicero, _Oration for Rabirimus Postumus_, 4, 5.
[1164] Fragments of the Julian law, _De Repetundis_, preserved in the
_Digest_, XLVIII. tit. XI.
The law is directed against those who, holding a magistracy, an embassy,
or any other office, or forming part of the attendants of these
functionaries, receive money.
They may receive money to any amount from their cousins, their still
nearer relatives, or their wives.
The law includes those who have received money: For speaking in the
Senate or any public assembly; for doing their duty or absenting
themselves from it; for refusing to obey a public order or for exceeding
it; for pronouncing judgment in a criminal or a civil case, or for not
pronouncing it; for condemning or acquitting; for awarding or
withdrawing the subject of a suit; for adjudging or taking an object in
litigation; for appointing a judge or arbitrator, changing him, ordering
him to judge, or for not appointing him or changing him, and not
ordering him to judge; for causing a man to be imprisoned, put in irons,
or set at liberty; for accusing or not accusing; for producing or
suppressing a witness; for recognising as complete an unfinished public
work; for accepting wheat for the use of the State without testing its
good quality; for taking upon himself the maintenance of the public
buildings without a certificate of their good condition; for enlisting a
soldier or discharging him.
All that has been given to the proconsul or prætor contrary to the
provisions of the present law, cannot become his by right of possession.
Sales and leases are declared null and void which have been made, for a
high or a low price, with a view to right of possession by a third.
The magistrates are to abstain from all extortion, and receive as salary
but 100 pieces of gold each year.
The action will lie equally against the heirs of the accused, but only
during the year succeeding his death.
No one who has been condemned under this law can be either judge,
accuser, or witness.
The penalties are exile, banishment to an island, or death, according to
the gravity of the offence.
[1165] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 8.
[1166] _De alternis consiliis rejiciendis. _ (Cicero, _Oration against
Vatinius_, 11. --_Scholiast_ of Bobbio, pp. 321, 323, edit. Orelli. )
[1167] “The citizens who, not being of your order, cannot, thanks to the
Cornelian laws, challenge more than three judges. ” (Cicero, _Second
Prosecution of Verres_, II. 31. )
[1168] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 28.
[1169] Cicero, _Familiar Letters_, XIII. 35. “Pompeius Strabo, father of
Pompey the Great, re-peopled Comum. Some time after, Scipio established
3,000 inhabitants there; and, finally, Cæsar sent 5,000 colonists, the
most distinguished of whom were 500 Greeks. ” (Strabo, cxix. )
[1170] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 18. --Dio Cassius, XXVIII. 8.
[1171] Dio Cassius, XXVIII. 8. --Orelli, _Index Legum_, 178.
[1172] Cicero, in his speech against Vatinius, chap. 6, while
reproaching him for having disregarded the auspices, exclaims, “I ask
you first, Did you refer the matter to the Senate, as Cæsar did? ”
“It is true that Cæsar’s acts were, for the benefit of peace, confirmed
by the Senate. ” (Cicero, _Second Philippic_, 39. )
[1173] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 7.
[1174] Cæsar conducted himself with discretion in his consulship. ”
(Plutarch, _Crassus_, 17. )
[1175] “Cæsar published laws that were worthy, I will not say of a
consul, but of the most reckless of tribunes. ” (Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 14. )
[1176] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, VI. 1. --Appian, _Civil Wars_, II.
13.
[1177] Pliny, _Natural History_, XXXIII. 5. Drumann and Mommsen, like
ourselves, refuse their belief to the assertion of Suetonius.
[1178] Plutarch, _Lucullus_, 9.
[1179] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 22. --Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 14.
[1180] Appian, _Civil Wars_, II. 14.
[1181] Plutarch, _Crassus_, 17.
[1182] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 8. --Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 22.
[1183] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 22.
[1184] Dio Cassius, XL. 34.
[1185] “At the gladiatorial exhibition, the giver of the show and all
his attendants were received with hisses. At the games in honour of
Apollo, the tragedian Diphilus made a pointed allusion to our friend
Pompey in the lines--
‘’Tis through our woes that thou art great,’
and was called upon to repeat the words a thousand times. Further on,
the whole assembly cheered him when he said,
‘A time shall come, when thou thyself shall weep
That power of thine so deadly’--
for they are lines that one might have said were written on purpose by
an enemy of Pompey. The words
‘If nought, nor law, nor virtue, hold thee back,’
were received with a tempest of acclamation. When Cæsar arrived, he met
with a cold reception. Curio, on the other hand, who followed him, was
saluted with a thousand cheers, as Pompey used to be in the prosperous
times of the Republic. Cæsar was annoyed, and sent off a courier post
haste to Pompey, who is, they say, at Capua. ” (Cicero, _Letters to
Atticus_, II. 19. )
[1186] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 9.
[1187] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 19.
[1188] “Bibulus is being praised to the skies, I know not why; but he is
being extolled as the one only man who, by temporising, has restored the
State. Pompey, my idol Pompey, has been his own ruin, as I own with
tears to-day; he has no one left who takes his side from affection. I am
afraid that they will find it necessary to resort to intimidation. For
my own part, I forbear, on the one hand, to combat their views on
account of my ancient friendship with them, and, on the other, my
antecedents prevent my approving of what they are about; I preserve a
middle course. The humour of the people is best seen in the theatres. ”
(Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 19, 20, 21. )
[1189] “He keeps prudently in the background, but hopes at a safe
distance to witness their shipwreck. ” (Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II.
7. )
[1190] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 13.
[1191] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 17.
[1192] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 20, 21.
[1193] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 11.
[1194] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 24.
[1195] Cicero, _Oration against Vatinius_, II. --Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 9.
[1196] Scholiast of Bobbio, _On Cicero’s Oration against Vatinius_, p.
330, edit. Orelli. --Appian, _Civil Wars_, II. 2 and 12.
[1197] Appian, _Civil Wars_, II. 12.
[1198] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 20.
[1199] “He (Ariovistus) knows, by his messengers, that in causing
Cæsar’s death he would gratify a number of great persons at Rome; his
death would win to him their favour and friendship. ” (Cæsar, _War in
Gaul_, I. 44. )
[1200] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 12.
[1201] Cicero, _Letters to Quintus_, I. 2.
[1202] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 23; _Nero_, 2.
[1203] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 23. --Valerius Maximus, III. 7, 9.
[1204] “At the gates of Rome there was a general invested with authority
for many years, and at the head of a great army (_cum magno exercitu_).
Was he my enemy? I do not say he was; but I knew that when people said
so, he was silent. ” (Cicero, _Oration after his return in the Senate_,
13. )--“Oppressos, vos, inquit, tenebo _exercitu_ Cæsaris. ” (Cicero,
_Letters to Atticus_, II. 16. )--“Clodius said he would invade the curia
at the head of Cæsar’s _army_. ” (Cicero, _Oration on the Report of the
Augurs_, 22. )--“Cæsar had already gone out of Rome _with his army_. ”
(Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 17. )
[1205] In several passages of Cicero’s letters, Cæsar is represented as
being at the gates of Rome at the head of his army; and yet we know from
his _Commentaries_ that at the beginning of the war in Gaul he had only
four legions, of which one was stationed on the banks of the Rhine, and
the three others at Aquileia, in Illyria. It is, therefore, difficult to
understand how he could have had troops at the gates of Rome, of which
no further mention is made in the course of his campaign. The only way
to reconcile the letters of Cicero with the _Commentaries_ is to allow
that Cæsar, independently of the legions which he found beyond the
frontiers of Italy, summoned to his standard the volunteers and Roman
veterans who were desirous of following him. Mustering at the gate of
Rome, they joined him subsequently in Gaul, and were merged in the
legions. This supposition is the more probable, as in 700, when the
question of re-electing Pompey and Crassus to the consulship was brought
forward, Cæsar sent to Rome a great number of soldiers to vote in the
comitia. Hence, as all the legions had been recruited in Cisalpine Gaul,
the inhabitants of which did not possess the right of Roman city, he
must have had other Roman citizens in his army. Besides, if Cæsar
appealed to the veterans, he only followed the example of nearly all the
Roman generals, and among others of Scipio, Flamininus, and Marius. In
fact, when Cornelius Scipio departed for the war against Antiochus,
there were five thousand volunteers at the gates of Rome--citizens as
well as allies--who had served in all the campaigns of his brother,
Scipio Africanus. (Titus Livius, XXXVII. 4. )--“When Flamininus left to
join the legions in Macedonia, he took with him three thousand veterans
who had fought against Hannibal and Hasdrubal. ” (Plutarch, _Flamininus_,
III. )--“Marius, before leaving for the war against Jugurtha, appealed to
all the bravest soldiers of Latium. He knew most of them for having
served under his eyes, and the rest by reputation. By force of
solicitation, he obliged even the veterans to go with him. ” (Sallust,
_War of Jugurtha_, LXXXIV. )
[1206] “At the present moment he (Clodius) is agitating and raging; he
knows not what he wants; he makes hostile demonstrations on this side
and on that, and seems to intend to leave to chance where he shall
strike. When he gives a thought to the unpopularity of the present state
of things, you would say he was going to fly at the authors of it; but
when he sees on which side are the means of action and the armed force,
he turns round against us. ” (Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 22. )
[1207] These clubs (_collegia compitalitia_) had an organisation which
was almost military, divided into districts, and composed exclusively of
the proletaries. (See Mommsen, _Roman History_, III. 290. )--“The slaves
enrolled under pretence of forming corporations. ” (Cicero, _Oration
after his return in the Senate_, 13. )
[1208] An exception, however, was made in 690, in favour of the
corporations of artisans. (Asconius, _In Pisone_, IV. p. 7; _In
Corneliana_, p. 75, edit. Orelli. )
[1209] Cicero, _Oration against Piso_, 4. --Asconius, _On the Oration of
Cicero against Piso_, pp. 7, 8, edit. Orelli. --Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 13.
[1210] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 13.
[1211] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 17.
[1212] “I receive from Cæsar the most flattering invitations, asking me
to join him as lieutenant. ” (Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 17. )--“He
has got my enemy (Clodius) transferred to the plebeian order: either
because he was irritated to see that even his kindness could not
persuade me to join his side, or because he yielded to the urgency of
others. My refusal could not have been regarded as an insult, for
subsequently to it he advised me, nay, even entreated me, to serve him
as lieutenant.
