[979] “They feared his power and the great number of friends by whom he
was supported, for everybody was persuaded that the criminals would be
involved in the absolution of Cæsar, much more than Cæsar in their
punishment.
was supported, for everybody was persuaded that the criminals would be
involved in the absolution of Cæsar, much more than Cæsar in their
punishment.
Napoleon - History of Julius Caesar - a
” (Velleius Paterculus, II.
37.
)
[899] Dio Cassius, XXXV. 16.
[900] This is taken from a passage of Cicero compared with another of
Sallust. In fact, Cicero, in his _Oration for Murena_ (23), thus
expresses himself _Confusionem suffragiorum_ flagitasti, prorogationem
legis Maniliæ, æquationem gratiæ, dignitatis, suffragiorum. ” It is clear
that Cicero could not allude to the Manilian law on the freedmen, but to
that of Caius Gracchus, since Sallust employs nearly the same words
concerning this law, saying: “Sed de magistratibus creandis haud mihi
quidem absurde placet lex, quam C. Gracchus in tribunatu promulgaverat:
ut _ex confusis quinque classibus_ sorte centuriæ vocarentur. Ita
_coæquali dignitate_ pecunia, virtute anteire alius alium properabit. ”
(Sallust, _Letters to Cæsar_, vii. )
[901] Dio Cassius, III. 36, 40.
[902] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 5.
[903] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 10. --Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 10.
[904] Titus Livius, IX. 40.
[905] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 8.
[906] “The gladiators whom you have bought are a very fine acquisition.
It is said that they are well trained, and if you had wished to let them
out on the last occasion, you would have regained what they have cost
you. ” (Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, IV. 4. )
[907] Servius, _Commentary on Book III. verse 67 of the
Æneid_. --Tertullian, _On the Shows_, V. --Titus Livius, XXIII. 30; XXIX.
46. --Valerius Maximus, II. iv. § 7.
[908] “When Cæsar, afterwards dictator, but then ædile, gave funeral
games in honour of his father, all that was used in the arena was of
silver; silver lances glittered in the hands of the criminals and
pierced the wild beasts, an example which even simple municipal towns
imitate. ” (Pliny, _Natural History_, XXXIII. 3. )
[909] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 10.
[910] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 11.
[911] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 6.
[912] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 6.
[913] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 6.
[914] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 11. --Cicero, _First Oration on the Agrarian
Law_, i. 16.
[915] Justin, xxix. 5, Scholiast of Bobbio, _On the Oration of Cicero,
“De Rege Alexandrino,”_ p. 350, edit. Orelli.
[916] Cicero, _Second Oration on the Agrarian Law_, xvi.
[917] “Augustus made it one, among other state maxims, to sequester
Egypt, forbidding the Roman knights and senators of the first rank ever
to go there without his permission. He feared that Italy might be
famished by the first ambitious person who should seize the province,
where, holding the keys of both land and sea, he might defend himself
with very few soldiers against great armies. ” (Tacitus, _Annals_, II.
59. )
[918] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 11.
[919] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 9.
[920] “You name me a foreigner because I have come from a municipal
town. If you regard us as foreigners, although our name and rank were
formerly well established at Rome, and in public opinion, how much then
must these competitors be foreigners in your eyes, this _élite_ of
Italy, who come from all parts to dispute with you magistrateships and
honours? ” (Cicero, _Oration for Sylla_, 8. )
[921] See Drumann, _Julii_, 147.
[922] J. Paul, _Sentences_, V. iv. , p. 417, edit. Huschke. --Justinian,
_Institutes_, IV. xviii. § 5. --Appian, _On the Office of the Proconsul_,
vii.
[923] “Then, in the instructions directed against the _sicarii_, and the
exceptions proposed by the Cornelian law, he ranked among these
malefactors those who, during the proscription, had received money from
the public treasury for having brought to Sylla the heads of Roman
citizens. ” (Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 11. )
[924] Plutarch, _Cato_, 21. --Dio Cassius, XLVII. 6.
[925] Cicero, _Third Speech on the Agrarian Law_, 4.
[926] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 10. --Asconius, _Commentary on the Orations of
Cicero, “In Toga Candida,”_ pp. 91, 92, edit Orelli.
[927] Asconius, _In Toga Candida_, p. 91.
[928] Sallust, _Catiline_, 19.
[929] Plutarch, _Cicero_, 15.
[930] “I am preparing at this moment to defend Catiline, my competitor.
I hope, if I obtain his acquittal, to find him disposed to come to an
understanding with me on our next steps. If he is against this, I will
[I shall know what to do (? )] take my way. ” (Cicero, _Letters to
Atticus_, I. ii. )
[931] Cicero, _Oration for Sylla_, 29.
[932] Plutarch, _Cato_, 3.
[933] Asconius, _Cicero’s Oration_, “_In Toga Candida_,” p. 82, edit.
Orelli.
[934] Plutarch, _Cicero_, 3.
[935] They called new men those who amongst their ancestors counted none
that had held a high magistracy. (Appian, _Civil Wars_, II. 2. )--Cicero
also confirms this fact: “I am the first new man that, for a great
number of years, is remembered to have been appointed consul; and this
eminent post, in which the nobility were in a manner entrenched, and to
which they had closed all the avenues, you have, to place me at your
head, forced the barriers; you have desired that merit henceforth find
them open. ” (Cicero, _Second Oration on the Agrarian Law_, 1. )
[936] Sallust, _Catiline_, 23.
[937] “Cicero favoured sometimes the one, sometimes the other, to be
sought after by both parties. ” (Dio Cassius, XXXVI. 26. )
[938] _Second Oration on the Agrarian Law_, 25.
[939] The territories conceded by a treaty being excepted, which freed
from this obligation the African territory, which had become, since
Scipio, the property of the Republic, and given by Pompey to Hiempsal.
In Campania every colonist was obliged to have ten _jugera_, and, on the
territory of Stella, twelve.
[940] Cicero, _Second Oration on the Agrarian Law_, 26.
[941] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 1. --Plutarch, _Cicero_,
17. --“When young Romans, full of merit and honour, have found themselves
in such a position that their admissibility to magistracies has effected
the overthrow of the State, I have dared to brave their enmity, to
interdict their access to the comitia and to honours. ” (Cicero, _Oration
against L. Piso_. )
[942] “They wish to deprive the Republic of all refuge, of every
guarantee of safety in difficult conjunctures. ” (Cicero, _Oration for
Rabirius_, 2. )
[943] “This supreme power which, according to the institutions of Rome,
the Senate confers upon the magistrates, consists in raising troops, in
making war, in keeping to their duties, by every means, the allies and
citizens; in exercising supremely, equally at Rome or abroad, both civil
and military authority. In all other cases, without the express order of
the people, none of these prerogatives are conferred upon the consuls. ”
(Sallust, _Catiline_, 29. )
[944] Cicero, _Oration for Rabirius_, 9.
[945] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 12.
[946] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 26, 27.
[947] Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, I. 16. --Priscian, vi. , p. 710, edit.
Putsch. --Macrobius (_l. c. _) quotes the 16th book of the treatise of
Cæsar on the Auspices. --Dio Cassius (xxxvii. ) expresses himself thus:
“Above all, because he had supported Labienus against Rabirius, and had
not voted for the death of Lentulus. ” But the Greek author errs: the
nomination of Cæsar to the high pontificate took place before the
conspiracy of Catiline. (See Velleius Paterculus, II. 43. )
[948] Appian, _Civil Wars_, II. 1, 8, 14.
[949] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 7.
[950] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 7.
[951] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 13.
[952] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 46.
[953] “On the 23rd of August, the day of inauguration of Lentulus,
flamen of Mars, the house was decorated, and couches of ivory were set
up in the triclinia. In the two first halls were the pontiffs Q.
Catulus, M. Æmilius Lepidus, D. Silanus, C. Cæsar, king of the
sacrifices, and . . . L. Julius Cæsar, augur. The third received the
vestals. The repast was thus composed:--For the first course:
sea-urchins, raw oysters in any quantity, pelorides (a kind of oyster of
extraordinary size), spondyli (shell-fish of the oyster kind), thrushes,
asparagus; and, lower down, a fat hen, a vol-au-vent of large oysters,
and sea-acorns black and white (sea and river shell-fish according to
Pliny). Then more spondyli, glycomarides (another shell-fish mentioned
by Pliny), sea-nettles, beccaficos, filets of venison and wild boar,
fatted fowls powdered with flour, beccaficos, murices and purple fish
(shell-fish bristling with points, which yielded the purple of the
ancients). Second course: sows’ udders, wild boar’s head, fish-pie,
sows’ udder-pie, ducks, boiled teal, hares, roast fowls, starch (flour
that is obtained in the same manner as starch, without grinding--many
sorts of creams, _amylaria_, were made of it), loaves from Picenum. ”
(Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, III. 9. )
[954] “It was at the very point when it required no more to upset the
weakly government than a slight impulse from the first bold man who
presented himself. ” (Plutarch, _Cicero_, 15. )
[955] Cicero, _Oration for M. Cælius_, 5. This oration was delivered in
the year 698.
[956] Plutarch, _Cicero_, 19.
[957] Sallust, _Catiline_, 27, 28.
[958] This is deduced from what Florus (III. 6) says of the command of
the fleet which L. Gellius had, and from a passage in Cicero. (_First
Oration after his Return_, 7. )--L. Gellius expresses himself clearly
upon the danger the Republic had run, and proposed the awarding of a
civic crown to Cicero. (Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, XII. 21; _Oration
against Piso_, 3. --Aulus Gellius, V. 6. )
[959] Cicero, _First Catiline Oration_, 1; _Second Catiline Oration_, 1.
[960] Sallust, _Catiline_, 32.
[961] Sallust, _Catiline_, 30, 31. --Plutarch, _Cicero_, 17.
[962] Sallust, _Catiline_, 47.
[963] Sallust, _Catiline_, 51. --Appian, _Civil Wars_, II. 6.
[964] Cicero, _Fourth Catiline Oration_, 1.
[965] Cicero, _Fourth Catiline Oration_, 2.
[966] _Second Catiline Oration_, 4.
[967] _First Oration against Catiline_, 2.
[968] _Second Oration on the Agrarian Law_, 5.
[969] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 14.
[970] Cicero, _Fourth Oration against Catiline_, 5.
[971] Sallust, _Catiline_, 52.
[972] Plutarch, _Cato_, 28. --See the _Comparison of Alexander and
Cæsar_, 7.
[973] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 53.
[974] Sallust, _Catiline_, 52.
[975] Plutarch, _Cicero_, 28.
[976] Sallust, _Catiline_, 49.
[977] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 8.
[978] Sallust, _Catiline_, 49.
[979] “They feared his power and the great number of friends by whom he
was supported, for everybody was persuaded that the criminals would be
involved in the absolution of Cæsar, much more than Cæsar in their
punishment. ” (Plutarch, _Cicero_, 27. )
[980] “And I have myself since heard Crassus say openly that this cruel
affront had been caused him by Cicero. ” (Sallust, _Catiline_, 48. )
[981] We may read in the historians of the time the recital of fables
invented at will to ruin the conspirators. Thus Catiline, seeking to
bind by an oath accomplices in his crime, is represented as causing cups
filled with human blood and wine to be passed round. (Sallust,
_Catiline_, 22. )--According to Plutarch, they slaughtered a man, and all
ate of his flesh. (Plutarch, _Cicero_, 14. --Florus, IV. 1. )
[982] Cicero himself acknowledged that these accusations were
commonplaces for the necessity of the cause. In a letter to Atticus, he
describes a scene which passed in the Senate a short time after the
return of Pompey to Rome. He tells us that this general satisfied
himself with approving all the acts of the Senate, without imputing
anything personal to him (Cicero); “but Crassus,” he continues, “rose
and spoke with much eloquence. . . . Brief, he attacked _all the
commonplace of sword and flame_, which I have been accustomed to treat,
you know in how many ways, in my orations, of which you are the
sovereign critic. ” (Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, I. 14. )
[983] “The populace, who at first, through the love of novelty, had been
only too much inclined for this war, changes its sentiments, curses the
enterprise of Catiline, and exalts Cicero to the skies. ” (Sallust,
_Catiline_, 48. )
[984] Sallust, _Catiline_, 39. --Dio Cassius, XXVII. 36.
[985] “Many young estimable noblemen were attached to this wicked and
corrupt man. ” (Cicero, _Oration for M. Cælius_, 4. )--“He had drawn
around him men perverse and audacious, at the same time that he had
attached to himself numbers of virtuous and steady citizens, by the
false semblances of an affected virtue. ” (Cicero, _ibid. _ 6. )
[986] Sallust, _Catiline_, 17.
[987] “And this silver eagle, to which he had consecrated in his house
an altar. ” (Cicero, _Second Oration against Catiline_, 6. )
[988] Sallust, _Catiline_, 20.
[989] Sallust, _Catiline_, 33. Speech of the envoys sent by Mallius to
Marcius Rex.
[990] Sallust, _Catiline_, 30.
[991] Sallust, _Catiline_, 36.
[992] “Meanwhile, he kept refusing slaves, who, from the beginning, had
never ceased joining him in large bands. Full of confidence in the
resources of the conspiracy, he regarded any appearance of confounding
the cause of the citizens with that of the slaves as contrary to his
policy. ” (Sallust, _Catiline_, 56. )
[993] Sallust, _Catiline_, 44.
[994] “People who will fall at our feet, if I show them, I do not say
the points of our swords, but the edict of the prætor. ” (Cicero, _Second
Oration against Catiline_, 3. )
[995] Sallust, _Catiline_, 61.
[996] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 10.
[997] The Emperor Napoleon, in the _Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène_, also
treats as a fable this opinion of the historians that Catiline desired
to burn Rome, and give it up to pillage, in order afterwards to govern a
ruined city. The Emperor thought, said M. de Las Cases, that it was
rather some new faction, after the manner of Marius and Sylla, which,
having been unsuccessful, had seen all the unfounded accusations that
are brought in such cases heaped upon its leader.
[998] Cicero, _Oration for Flaccus_, 38.
[999] “He excited public cavil, not by evil actions, but by his habit of
self-glorification. He never went to the Senate, to the assemblies of
the people, to the courts of law, without having on his lips the names
of Catiline and Lentulus. ” (Plutarch, _Cicero_, 31. )
[1000] Cicero, _Familiar Letters_, v. 7.
[1001] See Cæsar’s speech, quoted above.
[1002] It may be interesting to reproduce here, from the letters of
Cicero, the list of the discourses which he delivered during the year of
his consulship. “I wished, I also, after the manner of Demosthenes, to
have my political speeches, which may be named _consulars_. The first
and second are on the Agrarian Law; the former before the Senate on the
calends of January; the second before the people; the third, about Otho;
the fourth, for Rabirius; the fifth, on the children of the proscribed;
the sixth, on my relinquishing my province; the seventh is that which
put Catiline to flight; the eighth was delivered before the people the
day after his flight; the ninth, from the tribune, the day when the
Allobroges came to give their evidence; the tenth, before the Senate, on
the 5th of December. There are two more, not so long, which may be
described as supplementary to the two first on the Agrarian Law. ”
(Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 1. )
[1003] Velleius Paterculus, II. 40. --Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 21.
[1004] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 46.
[1005] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 44; XLIII. 14.
[1006] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 16.
[1007] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 43. --Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 16. --Cicero,
_Oration for Sestius_, 29.
[1008] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 16.
[1009] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 24.
[1010] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 9.
[1011] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 17.
[1012] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 17.
[1013] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 50.
[1014] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 50.
[1015] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 10.
[1016] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 1. --Plutarch, _Cicero_, 27; Plutarch,
_Cæsar_, 10. --“This sacrifice is offered by the vestal virgins, on
behalf of the Roman people, in the house of a magistrate who has the
right of _imperium_, with ceremonies that it is not allowable to reveal.
The goddess to whom it is offered is one whose very name is a mystery to
men, and whom Clodius terms the _Good Goddess_ (_Bona Dea_), because she
forgave him so gross an outrage. ” (Cicero, _Oration on the Report of the
Augurs_, 17. )--The _Good Goddess_, like the majority of the divinities
of the earth among the ancients, was regarded as a sort of beneficent
fairy who presided over the fertility of the fields and the conception
of women. The nocturnal sacrifice was celebrated at the beginning of
December, in the house of the consul or the prætor, by the wife of that
magistrate, or by the vestal virgins. At the commencement of the
festival they made a propitiatory sacrifice of a pig, and prayers were
offered for the prosperity of the Roman people.
[1017] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, I. 14.
[1018] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, I. 16.
[1019] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, I. 17.
[1020] Appian, _Mithridatic War_, 101.
[1021] Appian, _Mithridatic War_, 106.
[1022] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 20.
[1023] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 44. In contradiction to other authors, Dio
Cassius asserts that the elections were adjourned. (Plutarch, _Pompey_,
45. )
[1024] “The more men were terrified, the more they were re-assured, on
seeing Pompey return to his country as a simple citizen. ” (Velleius
Paterculus, II. 40. )
[1025] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, I. 12.
[1026] Metellus was subjugating Crete, when Pompey sent one of his
lieutenants to depose him, under the pretence that that island was
included in his own wide jurisdiction by sea.
[1027] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 49.
[1028] “No rectitude, no candour, not a single honourable motive in his
policy; nothing elevated, nothing strong, nothing generous. ” (Cicero,
_Letters to Atticus_, I. 12. )
[1029] Plutarch, _Pompey_, 47.
[1030] Pliny, _Natural History_, XXXVII. 5.
[1031] Vases from Carmania that were highly prized. They reflected the
colours of the rainbow, and, according to Pliny, a single one was sold
for seventy talents (more than 300,000 francs [£12,000]). (Pliny,
_Natural History_, XXXVII, 7, 8. )
[1032] Pliny, XXXIII. 54. --Strabo, XII. 545.
[1033] Appian, _War against Mithridates_, 116.
[1034] Pliny, _Natural History_, XII. 9, 54.
[1035] Dio Cassius, XXXVI. 2. --Velleius Paterculus, II. 34.
[1036] Appian, _War against Mithridates_, 117.
[1037] Plutarch, _Pompey_, 47. --Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 21.
[1038] Cicero, _Oration for Murena_, 14.
[1039] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, I. 18.
[1040] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 50.
[1041] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, I. 19.
[1042] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, I. 19.
[1043] Cicero, _Oration on the Agrarian Law_, II. 27.
[1044] “Your ancestors never set you the example of buying lands from
individuals in order to send colonies thither. _All the laws, up to the
present time, have contented themselves with establishing them on the
lands belonging to the State. _” (Cicero, _Oration on the Agrarian Law_,
II. 25. )
[1045] Plutarch, _Cato of Utica_, 36.
[1046] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 51.
[1047] Plutarch, _Cato_, 35.
[1048] “People abuse the Senate; the equestrian order stands aloof from
it. Thus this year will have seen the overthrow of the two solid
foundations on which I, single-handed, had planted the Republic--the
authority of the Senate and the union of the two orders. ” (Cicero,
_Letters to Atticus_, I. 18. )
[1049] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 1.
[1050] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 12. --Appian (_Civil Wars_, II. 2, § 8) speaks
of twenty-five million sestertii--_i. e. _, 4,750,000 francs [£190,000].
[1051] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 18.
[1052] Cicero, _Letter to Atticus_, I. 14, 16.
[1053] “From his youth up he was zealous and true to his clients. ”
(Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 71. )
[1054] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 12.
[1055] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 12.
[1056] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 12.
[1057] A chain of mountains in Portugal, now called _Sierra di
Estrella_, separating the basin of the Tagus from the valley of Mondego.
According to Cellarius (_Ancient Geography_, I. 60), Mount Herminium is
still called _Arminno_. The principal _oppidum_ belonging to the
population of these mountains seems to have been called Medobrega
(_Membrio_). It is mentioned in _Cæsar’s Commentaries, War of
Alexandria_, 48.
[1058] Probably in the modern province of Leyria.
[1059] A survey made, in August, 1861, by the Duc de Bellune, leaves no
doubt that the peninsula of Peniche was once an island. The local
traditions state that in ancient times the ocean advanced as far as the
town of Atoguia; but since Dio Cassius speaks of the rising tide which
swept away soldiers, we must believe that there were fords at low tide.
We give extracts from Portuguese authors who have written on this
subject.
Bernard de Brito (_Portuguese Monarchy_, I. p. 429, Lisbon, 1790)
says:--“As along the entire coast of Portugal we cannot find, at the
present time, a single island that fulfils the conditions of the one
where Cæsar sought to disembark better than the peninsula, on which
there is a locality which, taking its name from its situation, is called
_Peniche_, we shall maintain, with our countryman Resende, that it is to
this that all the authors refer. And I do not believe it possible to
find one more suitable in every way than this: because, over and above
the fact that it is the only one, and situated at but a short distance
from the mainland, we see that when the tide is low it is possible to
traverse the strait dryshod, and with still greater facility than would
have been possible in ancient times, because the sea has silted up sand
against a large portion of this coast, and brought it to pass that the
sea does not rise to so high a point upon the land. Still, it rises high
enough to make it necessary, at high tide, to use a boat to reach the
island, and that in a space of about 500 paces in width, which separates
the island from the mainland. ”
The following is the passage of Resende:--“Sed quærendum utrobique
quænam insula ista fuerit terræ contigua, ad quam sive pedibus sive
natatu profugi transire potuerint, ad quam similiter et milites
trajicere tentarint? Non fuisse Londobrin, cujus meminit Ptolomæus
(_Berligam_ modo dicimus), indicio est distantia a continente non
modica. Et quum alia juxta Lusitaniæ totius littus nulla nostra ævo
exstet, hæc de qua Dion loquitur, vel incumbenti violentius mari abrasa,
vel certe peninsula illa oppidi Peniche juxta Atonguiam, erit
intelligenda. Nam etiam nunc alveo quingentis passibus lato a continente
sejungitur, qui pedibus æstu cedente transitur, redeunte vero insula
plane fit, neque adiri vado potest. Et forte illo sæculo fuerit
aliquanto major. ” (L. André de Resende. _De Antiquitatibus Lusitaniæ
cæteraque Historica quæ exstant Opera_, Conimbricæ, 1790, I. , p.
[899] Dio Cassius, XXXV. 16.
[900] This is taken from a passage of Cicero compared with another of
Sallust. In fact, Cicero, in his _Oration for Murena_ (23), thus
expresses himself _Confusionem suffragiorum_ flagitasti, prorogationem
legis Maniliæ, æquationem gratiæ, dignitatis, suffragiorum. ” It is clear
that Cicero could not allude to the Manilian law on the freedmen, but to
that of Caius Gracchus, since Sallust employs nearly the same words
concerning this law, saying: “Sed de magistratibus creandis haud mihi
quidem absurde placet lex, quam C. Gracchus in tribunatu promulgaverat:
ut _ex confusis quinque classibus_ sorte centuriæ vocarentur. Ita
_coæquali dignitate_ pecunia, virtute anteire alius alium properabit. ”
(Sallust, _Letters to Cæsar_, vii. )
[901] Dio Cassius, III. 36, 40.
[902] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 5.
[903] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 10. --Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 10.
[904] Titus Livius, IX. 40.
[905] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 8.
[906] “The gladiators whom you have bought are a very fine acquisition.
It is said that they are well trained, and if you had wished to let them
out on the last occasion, you would have regained what they have cost
you. ” (Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, IV. 4. )
[907] Servius, _Commentary on Book III. verse 67 of the
Æneid_. --Tertullian, _On the Shows_, V. --Titus Livius, XXIII. 30; XXIX.
46. --Valerius Maximus, II. iv. § 7.
[908] “When Cæsar, afterwards dictator, but then ædile, gave funeral
games in honour of his father, all that was used in the arena was of
silver; silver lances glittered in the hands of the criminals and
pierced the wild beasts, an example which even simple municipal towns
imitate. ” (Pliny, _Natural History_, XXXIII. 3. )
[909] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 10.
[910] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 11.
[911] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 6.
[912] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 6.
[913] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 6.
[914] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 11. --Cicero, _First Oration on the Agrarian
Law_, i. 16.
[915] Justin, xxix. 5, Scholiast of Bobbio, _On the Oration of Cicero,
“De Rege Alexandrino,”_ p. 350, edit. Orelli.
[916] Cicero, _Second Oration on the Agrarian Law_, xvi.
[917] “Augustus made it one, among other state maxims, to sequester
Egypt, forbidding the Roman knights and senators of the first rank ever
to go there without his permission. He feared that Italy might be
famished by the first ambitious person who should seize the province,
where, holding the keys of both land and sea, he might defend himself
with very few soldiers against great armies. ” (Tacitus, _Annals_, II.
59. )
[918] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 11.
[919] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 9.
[920] “You name me a foreigner because I have come from a municipal
town. If you regard us as foreigners, although our name and rank were
formerly well established at Rome, and in public opinion, how much then
must these competitors be foreigners in your eyes, this _élite_ of
Italy, who come from all parts to dispute with you magistrateships and
honours? ” (Cicero, _Oration for Sylla_, 8. )
[921] See Drumann, _Julii_, 147.
[922] J. Paul, _Sentences_, V. iv. , p. 417, edit. Huschke. --Justinian,
_Institutes_, IV. xviii. § 5. --Appian, _On the Office of the Proconsul_,
vii.
[923] “Then, in the instructions directed against the _sicarii_, and the
exceptions proposed by the Cornelian law, he ranked among these
malefactors those who, during the proscription, had received money from
the public treasury for having brought to Sylla the heads of Roman
citizens. ” (Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 11. )
[924] Plutarch, _Cato_, 21. --Dio Cassius, XLVII. 6.
[925] Cicero, _Third Speech on the Agrarian Law_, 4.
[926] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 10. --Asconius, _Commentary on the Orations of
Cicero, “In Toga Candida,”_ pp. 91, 92, edit Orelli.
[927] Asconius, _In Toga Candida_, p. 91.
[928] Sallust, _Catiline_, 19.
[929] Plutarch, _Cicero_, 15.
[930] “I am preparing at this moment to defend Catiline, my competitor.
I hope, if I obtain his acquittal, to find him disposed to come to an
understanding with me on our next steps. If he is against this, I will
[I shall know what to do (? )] take my way. ” (Cicero, _Letters to
Atticus_, I. ii. )
[931] Cicero, _Oration for Sylla_, 29.
[932] Plutarch, _Cato_, 3.
[933] Asconius, _Cicero’s Oration_, “_In Toga Candida_,” p. 82, edit.
Orelli.
[934] Plutarch, _Cicero_, 3.
[935] They called new men those who amongst their ancestors counted none
that had held a high magistracy. (Appian, _Civil Wars_, II. 2. )--Cicero
also confirms this fact: “I am the first new man that, for a great
number of years, is remembered to have been appointed consul; and this
eminent post, in which the nobility were in a manner entrenched, and to
which they had closed all the avenues, you have, to place me at your
head, forced the barriers; you have desired that merit henceforth find
them open. ” (Cicero, _Second Oration on the Agrarian Law_, 1. )
[936] Sallust, _Catiline_, 23.
[937] “Cicero favoured sometimes the one, sometimes the other, to be
sought after by both parties. ” (Dio Cassius, XXXVI. 26. )
[938] _Second Oration on the Agrarian Law_, 25.
[939] The territories conceded by a treaty being excepted, which freed
from this obligation the African territory, which had become, since
Scipio, the property of the Republic, and given by Pompey to Hiempsal.
In Campania every colonist was obliged to have ten _jugera_, and, on the
territory of Stella, twelve.
[940] Cicero, _Second Oration on the Agrarian Law_, 26.
[941] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 1. --Plutarch, _Cicero_,
17. --“When young Romans, full of merit and honour, have found themselves
in such a position that their admissibility to magistracies has effected
the overthrow of the State, I have dared to brave their enmity, to
interdict their access to the comitia and to honours. ” (Cicero, _Oration
against L. Piso_. )
[942] “They wish to deprive the Republic of all refuge, of every
guarantee of safety in difficult conjunctures. ” (Cicero, _Oration for
Rabirius_, 2. )
[943] “This supreme power which, according to the institutions of Rome,
the Senate confers upon the magistrates, consists in raising troops, in
making war, in keeping to their duties, by every means, the allies and
citizens; in exercising supremely, equally at Rome or abroad, both civil
and military authority. In all other cases, without the express order of
the people, none of these prerogatives are conferred upon the consuls. ”
(Sallust, _Catiline_, 29. )
[944] Cicero, _Oration for Rabirius_, 9.
[945] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 12.
[946] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 26, 27.
[947] Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, I. 16. --Priscian, vi. , p. 710, edit.
Putsch. --Macrobius (_l. c. _) quotes the 16th book of the treatise of
Cæsar on the Auspices. --Dio Cassius (xxxvii. ) expresses himself thus:
“Above all, because he had supported Labienus against Rabirius, and had
not voted for the death of Lentulus. ” But the Greek author errs: the
nomination of Cæsar to the high pontificate took place before the
conspiracy of Catiline. (See Velleius Paterculus, II. 43. )
[948] Appian, _Civil Wars_, II. 1, 8, 14.
[949] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 7.
[950] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 7.
[951] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 13.
[952] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 46.
[953] “On the 23rd of August, the day of inauguration of Lentulus,
flamen of Mars, the house was decorated, and couches of ivory were set
up in the triclinia. In the two first halls were the pontiffs Q.
Catulus, M. Æmilius Lepidus, D. Silanus, C. Cæsar, king of the
sacrifices, and . . . L. Julius Cæsar, augur. The third received the
vestals. The repast was thus composed:--For the first course:
sea-urchins, raw oysters in any quantity, pelorides (a kind of oyster of
extraordinary size), spondyli (shell-fish of the oyster kind), thrushes,
asparagus; and, lower down, a fat hen, a vol-au-vent of large oysters,
and sea-acorns black and white (sea and river shell-fish according to
Pliny). Then more spondyli, glycomarides (another shell-fish mentioned
by Pliny), sea-nettles, beccaficos, filets of venison and wild boar,
fatted fowls powdered with flour, beccaficos, murices and purple fish
(shell-fish bristling with points, which yielded the purple of the
ancients). Second course: sows’ udders, wild boar’s head, fish-pie,
sows’ udder-pie, ducks, boiled teal, hares, roast fowls, starch (flour
that is obtained in the same manner as starch, without grinding--many
sorts of creams, _amylaria_, were made of it), loaves from Picenum. ”
(Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, III. 9. )
[954] “It was at the very point when it required no more to upset the
weakly government than a slight impulse from the first bold man who
presented himself. ” (Plutarch, _Cicero_, 15. )
[955] Cicero, _Oration for M. Cælius_, 5. This oration was delivered in
the year 698.
[956] Plutarch, _Cicero_, 19.
[957] Sallust, _Catiline_, 27, 28.
[958] This is deduced from what Florus (III. 6) says of the command of
the fleet which L. Gellius had, and from a passage in Cicero. (_First
Oration after his Return_, 7. )--L. Gellius expresses himself clearly
upon the danger the Republic had run, and proposed the awarding of a
civic crown to Cicero. (Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, XII. 21; _Oration
against Piso_, 3. --Aulus Gellius, V. 6. )
[959] Cicero, _First Catiline Oration_, 1; _Second Catiline Oration_, 1.
[960] Sallust, _Catiline_, 32.
[961] Sallust, _Catiline_, 30, 31. --Plutarch, _Cicero_, 17.
[962] Sallust, _Catiline_, 47.
[963] Sallust, _Catiline_, 51. --Appian, _Civil Wars_, II. 6.
[964] Cicero, _Fourth Catiline Oration_, 1.
[965] Cicero, _Fourth Catiline Oration_, 2.
[966] _Second Catiline Oration_, 4.
[967] _First Oration against Catiline_, 2.
[968] _Second Oration on the Agrarian Law_, 5.
[969] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 14.
[970] Cicero, _Fourth Oration against Catiline_, 5.
[971] Sallust, _Catiline_, 52.
[972] Plutarch, _Cato_, 28. --See the _Comparison of Alexander and
Cæsar_, 7.
[973] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 53.
[974] Sallust, _Catiline_, 52.
[975] Plutarch, _Cicero_, 28.
[976] Sallust, _Catiline_, 49.
[977] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 8.
[978] Sallust, _Catiline_, 49.
[979] “They feared his power and the great number of friends by whom he
was supported, for everybody was persuaded that the criminals would be
involved in the absolution of Cæsar, much more than Cæsar in their
punishment. ” (Plutarch, _Cicero_, 27. )
[980] “And I have myself since heard Crassus say openly that this cruel
affront had been caused him by Cicero. ” (Sallust, _Catiline_, 48. )
[981] We may read in the historians of the time the recital of fables
invented at will to ruin the conspirators. Thus Catiline, seeking to
bind by an oath accomplices in his crime, is represented as causing cups
filled with human blood and wine to be passed round. (Sallust,
_Catiline_, 22. )--According to Plutarch, they slaughtered a man, and all
ate of his flesh. (Plutarch, _Cicero_, 14. --Florus, IV. 1. )
[982] Cicero himself acknowledged that these accusations were
commonplaces for the necessity of the cause. In a letter to Atticus, he
describes a scene which passed in the Senate a short time after the
return of Pompey to Rome. He tells us that this general satisfied
himself with approving all the acts of the Senate, without imputing
anything personal to him (Cicero); “but Crassus,” he continues, “rose
and spoke with much eloquence. . . . Brief, he attacked _all the
commonplace of sword and flame_, which I have been accustomed to treat,
you know in how many ways, in my orations, of which you are the
sovereign critic. ” (Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, I. 14. )
[983] “The populace, who at first, through the love of novelty, had been
only too much inclined for this war, changes its sentiments, curses the
enterprise of Catiline, and exalts Cicero to the skies. ” (Sallust,
_Catiline_, 48. )
[984] Sallust, _Catiline_, 39. --Dio Cassius, XXVII. 36.
[985] “Many young estimable noblemen were attached to this wicked and
corrupt man. ” (Cicero, _Oration for M. Cælius_, 4. )--“He had drawn
around him men perverse and audacious, at the same time that he had
attached to himself numbers of virtuous and steady citizens, by the
false semblances of an affected virtue. ” (Cicero, _ibid. _ 6. )
[986] Sallust, _Catiline_, 17.
[987] “And this silver eagle, to which he had consecrated in his house
an altar. ” (Cicero, _Second Oration against Catiline_, 6. )
[988] Sallust, _Catiline_, 20.
[989] Sallust, _Catiline_, 33. Speech of the envoys sent by Mallius to
Marcius Rex.
[990] Sallust, _Catiline_, 30.
[991] Sallust, _Catiline_, 36.
[992] “Meanwhile, he kept refusing slaves, who, from the beginning, had
never ceased joining him in large bands. Full of confidence in the
resources of the conspiracy, he regarded any appearance of confounding
the cause of the citizens with that of the slaves as contrary to his
policy. ” (Sallust, _Catiline_, 56. )
[993] Sallust, _Catiline_, 44.
[994] “People who will fall at our feet, if I show them, I do not say
the points of our swords, but the edict of the prætor. ” (Cicero, _Second
Oration against Catiline_, 3. )
[995] Sallust, _Catiline_, 61.
[996] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 10.
[997] The Emperor Napoleon, in the _Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène_, also
treats as a fable this opinion of the historians that Catiline desired
to burn Rome, and give it up to pillage, in order afterwards to govern a
ruined city. The Emperor thought, said M. de Las Cases, that it was
rather some new faction, after the manner of Marius and Sylla, which,
having been unsuccessful, had seen all the unfounded accusations that
are brought in such cases heaped upon its leader.
[998] Cicero, _Oration for Flaccus_, 38.
[999] “He excited public cavil, not by evil actions, but by his habit of
self-glorification. He never went to the Senate, to the assemblies of
the people, to the courts of law, without having on his lips the names
of Catiline and Lentulus. ” (Plutarch, _Cicero_, 31. )
[1000] Cicero, _Familiar Letters_, v. 7.
[1001] See Cæsar’s speech, quoted above.
[1002] It may be interesting to reproduce here, from the letters of
Cicero, the list of the discourses which he delivered during the year of
his consulship. “I wished, I also, after the manner of Demosthenes, to
have my political speeches, which may be named _consulars_. The first
and second are on the Agrarian Law; the former before the Senate on the
calends of January; the second before the people; the third, about Otho;
the fourth, for Rabirius; the fifth, on the children of the proscribed;
the sixth, on my relinquishing my province; the seventh is that which
put Catiline to flight; the eighth was delivered before the people the
day after his flight; the ninth, from the tribune, the day when the
Allobroges came to give their evidence; the tenth, before the Senate, on
the 5th of December. There are two more, not so long, which may be
described as supplementary to the two first on the Agrarian Law. ”
(Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 1. )
[1003] Velleius Paterculus, II. 40. --Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 21.
[1004] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 46.
[1005] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 44; XLIII. 14.
[1006] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 16.
[1007] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 43. --Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 16. --Cicero,
_Oration for Sestius_, 29.
[1008] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 16.
[1009] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 24.
[1010] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 9.
[1011] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 17.
[1012] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 17.
[1013] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 50.
[1014] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 50.
[1015] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 10.
[1016] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 1. --Plutarch, _Cicero_, 27; Plutarch,
_Cæsar_, 10. --“This sacrifice is offered by the vestal virgins, on
behalf of the Roman people, in the house of a magistrate who has the
right of _imperium_, with ceremonies that it is not allowable to reveal.
The goddess to whom it is offered is one whose very name is a mystery to
men, and whom Clodius terms the _Good Goddess_ (_Bona Dea_), because she
forgave him so gross an outrage. ” (Cicero, _Oration on the Report of the
Augurs_, 17. )--The _Good Goddess_, like the majority of the divinities
of the earth among the ancients, was regarded as a sort of beneficent
fairy who presided over the fertility of the fields and the conception
of women. The nocturnal sacrifice was celebrated at the beginning of
December, in the house of the consul or the prætor, by the wife of that
magistrate, or by the vestal virgins. At the commencement of the
festival they made a propitiatory sacrifice of a pig, and prayers were
offered for the prosperity of the Roman people.
[1017] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, I. 14.
[1018] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, I. 16.
[1019] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, I. 17.
[1020] Appian, _Mithridatic War_, 101.
[1021] Appian, _Mithridatic War_, 106.
[1022] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 20.
[1023] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 44. In contradiction to other authors, Dio
Cassius asserts that the elections were adjourned. (Plutarch, _Pompey_,
45. )
[1024] “The more men were terrified, the more they were re-assured, on
seeing Pompey return to his country as a simple citizen. ” (Velleius
Paterculus, II. 40. )
[1025] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, I. 12.
[1026] Metellus was subjugating Crete, when Pompey sent one of his
lieutenants to depose him, under the pretence that that island was
included in his own wide jurisdiction by sea.
[1027] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 49.
[1028] “No rectitude, no candour, not a single honourable motive in his
policy; nothing elevated, nothing strong, nothing generous. ” (Cicero,
_Letters to Atticus_, I. 12. )
[1029] Plutarch, _Pompey_, 47.
[1030] Pliny, _Natural History_, XXXVII. 5.
[1031] Vases from Carmania that were highly prized. They reflected the
colours of the rainbow, and, according to Pliny, a single one was sold
for seventy talents (more than 300,000 francs [£12,000]). (Pliny,
_Natural History_, XXXVII, 7, 8. )
[1032] Pliny, XXXIII. 54. --Strabo, XII. 545.
[1033] Appian, _War against Mithridates_, 116.
[1034] Pliny, _Natural History_, XII. 9, 54.
[1035] Dio Cassius, XXXVI. 2. --Velleius Paterculus, II. 34.
[1036] Appian, _War against Mithridates_, 117.
[1037] Plutarch, _Pompey_, 47. --Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 21.
[1038] Cicero, _Oration for Murena_, 14.
[1039] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, I. 18.
[1040] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 50.
[1041] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, I. 19.
[1042] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, I. 19.
[1043] Cicero, _Oration on the Agrarian Law_, II. 27.
[1044] “Your ancestors never set you the example of buying lands from
individuals in order to send colonies thither. _All the laws, up to the
present time, have contented themselves with establishing them on the
lands belonging to the State. _” (Cicero, _Oration on the Agrarian Law_,
II. 25. )
[1045] Plutarch, _Cato of Utica_, 36.
[1046] Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 51.
[1047] Plutarch, _Cato_, 35.
[1048] “People abuse the Senate; the equestrian order stands aloof from
it. Thus this year will have seen the overthrow of the two solid
foundations on which I, single-handed, had planted the Republic--the
authority of the Senate and the union of the two orders. ” (Cicero,
_Letters to Atticus_, I. 18. )
[1049] Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 1.
[1050] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 12. --Appian (_Civil Wars_, II. 2, § 8) speaks
of twenty-five million sestertii--_i. e. _, 4,750,000 francs [£190,000].
[1051] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 18.
[1052] Cicero, _Letter to Atticus_, I. 14, 16.
[1053] “From his youth up he was zealous and true to his clients. ”
(Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 71. )
[1054] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 12.
[1055] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 12.
[1056] Plutarch, _Cæsar_, 12.
[1057] A chain of mountains in Portugal, now called _Sierra di
Estrella_, separating the basin of the Tagus from the valley of Mondego.
According to Cellarius (_Ancient Geography_, I. 60), Mount Herminium is
still called _Arminno_. The principal _oppidum_ belonging to the
population of these mountains seems to have been called Medobrega
(_Membrio_). It is mentioned in _Cæsar’s Commentaries, War of
Alexandria_, 48.
[1058] Probably in the modern province of Leyria.
[1059] A survey made, in August, 1861, by the Duc de Bellune, leaves no
doubt that the peninsula of Peniche was once an island. The local
traditions state that in ancient times the ocean advanced as far as the
town of Atoguia; but since Dio Cassius speaks of the rising tide which
swept away soldiers, we must believe that there were fords at low tide.
We give extracts from Portuguese authors who have written on this
subject.
Bernard de Brito (_Portuguese Monarchy_, I. p. 429, Lisbon, 1790)
says:--“As along the entire coast of Portugal we cannot find, at the
present time, a single island that fulfils the conditions of the one
where Cæsar sought to disembark better than the peninsula, on which
there is a locality which, taking its name from its situation, is called
_Peniche_, we shall maintain, with our countryman Resende, that it is to
this that all the authors refer. And I do not believe it possible to
find one more suitable in every way than this: because, over and above
the fact that it is the only one, and situated at but a short distance
from the mainland, we see that when the tide is low it is possible to
traverse the strait dryshod, and with still greater facility than would
have been possible in ancient times, because the sea has silted up sand
against a large portion of this coast, and brought it to pass that the
sea does not rise to so high a point upon the land. Still, it rises high
enough to make it necessary, at high tide, to use a boat to reach the
island, and that in a space of about 500 paces in width, which separates
the island from the mainland. ”
The following is the passage of Resende:--“Sed quærendum utrobique
quænam insula ista fuerit terræ contigua, ad quam sive pedibus sive
natatu profugi transire potuerint, ad quam similiter et milites
trajicere tentarint? Non fuisse Londobrin, cujus meminit Ptolomæus
(_Berligam_ modo dicimus), indicio est distantia a continente non
modica. Et quum alia juxta Lusitaniæ totius littus nulla nostra ævo
exstet, hæc de qua Dion loquitur, vel incumbenti violentius mari abrasa,
vel certe peninsula illa oppidi Peniche juxta Atonguiam, erit
intelligenda. Nam etiam nunc alveo quingentis passibus lato a continente
sejungitur, qui pedibus æstu cedente transitur, redeunte vero insula
plane fit, neque adiri vado potest. Et forte illo sæculo fuerit
aliquanto major. ” (L. André de Resende. _De Antiquitatibus Lusitaniæ
cæteraque Historica quæ exstant Opera_, Conimbricæ, 1790, I. , p.
