and, finally, that anarchy, which he had sought to stifle by
the triumvirate, would be the cause of his own elevation?
the triumvirate, would be the cause of his own elevation?
Napoleon - History of Julius Caesar - a
[1152]
The generals were in the habit of burdening the people they governed
with exorbitant exactions. They extorted from them crowns of gold
(_aurum coronarium_), of considerable value, under pretence of the
triumph, and obliged the countries through which they passed to bear the
expenses of themselves and their attendants. Cæsar remedied these
abuses, by forbidding the proconsuls to demand the crown before the
triumph had been decreed,[1153] and by subjecting to the most rigorous
restrictions the contributions in kind which were to be furnished. [1154]
We may judge how necessary these regulations were from the fact that
Cicero, whose government was justly considered an honest one, admits
that he drew large sums from his province of Cilicia eight years after
the passing of the law Julia. [1155]
The same law forbad all governors to leave their provinces, or to send
their troops out of them to interfere in the affairs of any neighbouring
State, without permission of the Senate and the people,[1156] or to
extort any money from the inhabitants of the provinces. [1157]
The law by similar provisions diminished the abuse of free legations
(_legationes liberæ_). This was the name given to the missions of
senators, who, travelling into the provinces on their own affairs,
obtained by an abuse the title of envoy of the Roman people, to which
they had no right, in order to be defrayed the expenses and costs of
travelling. These missions, which were for an indefinite time, were the
subject of incessant[1158] complaints. Cicero had limited them to a
year: Cæsar prescribed a still narrower limit, but its exact length is
unknown. [1159]
As a supplement to the preceding measures he brought in a law (_De
pecuniis repetundis_), the provisions of which have often been
confounded with those of the law _De provinciis ordinandis_. Cicero
boasts of its perfection[1160] and justice. It contained a great number
of sections. In a letter from Cœlius to Cicero, the 101st chapter of
the law is referred to. Its object was to meet all cases of peculation,
out of Italy as well as in Rome. Persons who had been wronged could
demand restitution before a legal tribunal of the sums unjustly
collected. [1161] Though the principal provisions of it were borrowed
from the law of Sylla on the same subject, the penalty was more severe
and the proceedings more expeditious. For instance, as the rich
contrived, by going into voluntary exile before the verdict, to elude
the punishment, it was provided that in that case their goods should be
confiscated, in part or wholly, according to the nature of the
crime. [1162] If the fortune of the defendant was not sufficient for the
repayment of the money claimed, all those who had profited by the
embezzlement were sought out and jointly condemned. [1163] Finally,
corruption was attacked in all its forms,[1164] and the law went so far
as to watch over the honesty of business transactions. One article
deserves special remark, that which forbad a public work to be accepted
as completed if it were not absolutely finished. Cæsar had doubtless in
mind the process which he had unsuccessfully instituted against Catulus
for his failure to complete the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.
We may for the most part consider as Cæsar’s laws those which were
passed at his instigation, whether by the tribune P. Vatinius, or the
prætor Q. Fufius Calenus. [1165]
One of the laws of the former authorised the accuser in a suit, as well
as the accused, to challenge for once all the judges: down to this time
they had only been permitted to challenge a certain number. [1166] Its
object was to give to all the same guarantee which Sylla had reserved
exclusively to the senators, since for the knights and plebeians he
limited the challenge to three. [1167] Vatinius had also conferred on
five thousand colonists, established at Como (_Novum Comum_), the rights
of a Roman city. This measure[1168] flattered the pride of Pompey, whose
father, Pompeius Strabo, had rebuilt the town of Comum; and it offered
to other colonists the hope of obtaining the qualification of Roman
citizens, which Cæsar subsequently granted to them. [1169]
Another devoted partisan of the consul, the prætor Q. Fufius
Calenus,[1170] proposed a law which in judicial deliberations laid the
responsibility upon each of the three orders of which the tribunal was
composed: the senators, the knights, and the tribunes of the treasury.
Instead of pronouncing a collective judgment, they were called upon to
express their opinion separately. Dio Cassius explains the law in these
terms: “Seeing that in a process all the votes were mixed together, and
that each order took to itself the credit of the good decisions, and
threw the bad ones to the account of the others, Calenus had a law made
that the different orders should vote independently, in order to know
thus, not the opinion of individuals, since the vote was secret, but
that of each order. ”[1171]
All the laws of Cæsar were styled “Julian laws;” they received the
sanction of the Senate, and were adopted without opposition,[1172] and
even Cato himself did not oppose them; but when he became prætor, and
found himself obliged to put them into execution, he was little-minded
enough to object to call them by their name. [1173]
We may be convinced by the above facts, that, during his first
consulship, Cæsar was animated by a single motive, the public interest.
His ruling thought was to remedy the evils which afflicted the country.
His acts, which several historians have impeached as subversive and
inspired by boundless ambition, we find, on an attentive examination, to
be the result of a wise policy, and the carrying out of a well-known
plan, proclaimed formerly by the Gracchi, and recently by Pompey
himself. Like the Gracchi, Cæsar desired a distribution of the public
domain, the reform of justice, the relief of the provinces, and the
extension of the rights of city; like them, he had protected the
knightly order, so that he might oppose it to the formidable resistance
of the Senate; but he, more fortunate, accomplished that which the
Gracchi had been unable to realise. Plutarch, in the life of
Crassus,[1174] pronounces a eulogium on the wisdom of his government,
although an intemperate judgment had led that writer, elsewhere, to
compare his conduct to that of a factious tribune. [1175]
Following the taste of the age, and especially as a means of popularity,
Cæsar gave splendid games, shows, and gladiatorial combats, borrowing
from Pompey and Atticus considerable sums to meet his love of display,
his profusion, and his largesses. [1176] Suetonius, ever ready to record,
without distinction, the reports, true and false, current at the time,
relates that Cæsar had taken from the treasury three thousand pounds of
gold, for which he substituted gilt metal; but his high character is
sufficient to refute this calumny. Cicero, who had not, at this time,
any reason to spare him, makes no mention of it in his letters, where
his ill-humour displays itself, nor in his speech against Vatinius, one
of Cæsar’s devoted friends. On the other hand, Pliny[1177] mentions a
similar fact which happened during Pompey’s consulate.
[Sidenote: Cæsar receives the Government of the Gauls. ]
IV. Cæsar did not confine his ambition to discharging the functions of a
consul and legislator: he desired to obtain a command worthy of the
elevation of his genius, to extend the frontiers of the Republic, and to
preserve them from the invasion of their most powerful enemies. It will
be remembered that at the time of the election of the consuls, the
Senate had conferred upon them the superintendence of the woods and
public roads. He had, therefore, slender grounds to expect a return of
friendly feeling on the part of that assembly, and, if the distribution
of governments was vested in them, history offered examples of provinces
given by vote of the people. Numidia was assigned to Marius on the
proposal of the tribune L. Manlius; and L. Lucullus, having received
Cisalpine Gaul from the Senate, obtained Cilicia from the people. [1178]
It was thus that the command of Asia had been conferred upon Pompey.
Strong in these precedents, Vatinius proposed to the people to confer
upon Cæsar, for five years, the command of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyria,
with three legions. [1179] Pompey supported this proposal with all his
influence. The friends of Crassus,[1180] Claudius[1181] and L. Piso,
gave their votes in favour of this law.
At first, it appeared strange that the proposal of the tribune only
included Cisalpine Gaul, without reference to the other side of the
Alps, which alone offered chances of acquiring glory. But, on
reflection, we discover how skilful and politic was this manner of
putting the question. To solicit at the same time the government of both
the Gauls might have seemed exorbitant, and likely to expose him to
failure. To demand the government of Gaul proper was dangerous, for if
he had obtained it without Cisalpine Gaul, which would have devolved
upon another proconsul, Cæsar would have found himself completely
separated from Italy, inasmuch as it would have been impossible for him
to repair thither during the winter, and so preserve continuous
relations with Rome. The proposal of Vatinius, on the contrary, having
for its object only Cisalpine Gaul and Illyria, they could scarcely
refuse a command limited to the ordinary bounds, and Cæsar acquired
thereby a solid basis for operations in the midst of devoted
populations, where his legions could be easily recruited. As to the
province beyond the Alps, it was probable that some fortuitous
circumstance, or new proposal, would place it under his orders. This
happened sooner than he expected, for the Senate, by a skilful, but at
this time unusual, determination, added to his command a third province,
Gallia Comata, or Transalpine, and a fourth legion. The Senate thus
obtained for itself the credit of an initiative, which the people would
have taken of itself had it not been anticipated. [1182]
Transported with joy at this news, Cæsar, according to Suetonius,
exclaimed in the full Senate, that now, having succeeded to the utmost
of his desire in spite of his enemies, he would march over their
heads. [1183] This story is not probable. He was too prudent to provoke
his enemies in their face at the moment he was going to a distance from
Rome. “Always master of himself,” says an old writer, “he never
needlessly ran against anybody. ”[1184]
[Sidenote: Opposition of the Patricians. ]
V. Whilst, contending with the most serious difficulties, Cæsar
endeavoured to establish the Republic on the securest foundations, the
aristocratic party consoled itself for its successive defeats by a petty
war of sarcasm and chicanery. At the theatre they applauded all the
injurious allusions of Pompey, and received Cæsar with coldness. [1185]
Bibulus, the son-in-law of Cato, published libels containing the
grossest attacks. He renewed the accusation of plotting against the
Republic, and of the pretended shameful relations with Nicomedes. [1186]
People rushed to read and copy these insulting placards. Cicero gladly
sent them to Atticus. [1187] The party, too, to which Bibulus belonged,
extolled him to the skies, and made him a great man. [1188] His
opposition, however, had only succeeded in postponing the consular
comitia until the month of October. This prorogation was made in the
hope of preventing the election of consuls friendly to the triumvirs.
Cæsar, on this occasion, attacked him in a violent speech, and Vatinius
proposed to arrest him. Pompey, on his part, moved by invectives to
which he was unaccustomed, complained to the people of the animosity of
which he was the object; but his speech does not appear to have been
attended with much success.
It is sad to see the accomplishment of great things often thwarted by
the little passions of short-sighted men, who only know the world in the
small circle to which their life is confined. By seconding Cæsar,
Bibulus might have obtained an honourable reputation. He preferred being
the hero of a coterie, and sought to obtain the interested applause of a
few selfish senators, rather than, with his colleague, to merit public
gratitude. Cicero, on his part, mistook for a true expression of opinion
the clamours of a desperate faction. He was, moreover, one of those who
find that all fares well while they are themselves in power, and that
everything is endangered when they are out. In his letters to Atticus he
speaks of the general hatred to these new kings, predicts their
approaching fall, and exclaims,[1189] “What murmurs! what irritation!
what hatred against our friend Pompey! His name of _great_ is growing
old like that of _rich_ Crassus. ”[1190]
He explains, with a perfect naïveté, the consolation which his self-love
finds in the abasement of him who was formerly the object of his
admiration. “I was tormented with fear that the services which Pompey
rendered to our country should hereafter appear greater than mine. I
have quite recovered from it. He is so low, so very low, that Curius
himself appears to me a giant beside him. ”[1191] And he adds, “Now there
is nothing more popular than to hate the popular men; they have no one
on their side. They know it, and it is this which makes me fear a resort
to violence. I cannot think without shuddering of the explosions which
are inevitable. ”[1192] The hatred which he bore to Clodius and Valerius
misled his judgment.
Whilst Cæsar laboriously pursued the course of his destiny, the genius
of Cicero, instead of understanding the future and hastening progress by
his co-operation, resisted the general impulse, denied its evidence, and
could not perceive the greatness of the cause through the faults of
certain adherents to power.
Cæsar bore uneasily the attacks of Cicero; but, like all who are guided
by great political views, superior to resentment, he conciliated
everything which might exercise an ascendency over people’s minds; and
the eloquence of Cicero was a power. Dio Cassius thus explains the
conduct of Cæsar: “He did not wound Cicero either by his words or his
acts. He said that often many men designedly throw vain sarcasm against
those who are above them in order to drive them to dispute, in the hope
of appearing to have some resemblance to them, and be put in the same
rank if they succeed in being abused in return. Cæsar therefore judged
that he ought not to enter the lists with anybody. Such was his rule of
conduct towards those who insulted him, and, as he saw very well that
Cicero sought less to offend him than to provoke him to make some
injurious reply, from the desire which he had to be looked upon as his
equal, he took no notice of him, made no account of what he said, and
even allowed Cicero to insult him as he liked, and to praise himself
beyond measure. However, he was far from despising him, but, naturally
gentle, his anger was not easily aroused. He had much to punish, as must
be the case with one mixed up with great affairs, but he never yielded
to passion. ”[1193]
An incident occurred which showed all the animosity of a certain party.
L. Vettius, an old spy of Cicero’s in the Catiline conspiracy, punished
for having falsely accused Cæsar, was arrested on suspicion of wishing
to attempt his life, as well as that of Pompey. A poniard was found upon
him; and, being interrogated before the Senate, he denounced, as the
instigators of his crime, the young Curio, Cæpio, Brutus, Lentulus,
Cato, Lucullus, Piso, son-in-law of Cicero, Cicero himself, M.
Laterensis, and others. He also named Bibulus, which removed all air of
probability from his accusations, Bibulus having already warned Pompey
to be on his guard. [1194] Historians, such as Dio Cassius, Appian, and
Plutarch, treat this plot seriously; the first maintains expressly that
Cicero and Lucullus had armed the hand of the assassin. Suetonius, on
the contrary, reproaches Cæsar with having suborned Vettius in order to
throw the blame upon his adversaries.
In face of these contradictory informations, it is best, as in the case
of an ordinary lawsuit, to estimate the worth of the charge according to
the previous character of the accused. Now, Cicero, notwithstanding his
instability, was too honest to have a hand in a plot for assassination,
and Cæsar had too elevated a character and too great a consciousness of
his power to lower himself so far as to seek, in a miserable intrigue,
the means of augmenting his influence. A _senatus-consultum_ caused
Vettius to be thrown into prison; but Cæsar, interested in, and resolved
on, the discovery of the truth, referred the matter to the people, and
forced Vettius to mount the tribune of the orators. He, with a
suspicious versatility, denounced those whom he had before acquitted,
and cleared those whom he had denounced, and among others, Brutus. With
regard to the latter, it was pretended that this change was due to
Cæsar’s connection with his mother. Vettius was remanded to prison, and
found dead next day. Cicero accused Vatinius of killing him;[1195] but,
according to others, the true authors of his death were those who had
urged him into this disgraceful intrigue, and were in fear of his
revelations. [1196]
The comparison of these various accounts leads us to conclude that this
obscure agent of dark intrigues had made himself the instigator of a
plot, in order to have the merit of revealing it, and to attract the
favour of Cæsar by pointing to his political adversaries as accomplices.
Nevertheless, the event turned to the profit of Cæsar, and the people
permitted him to take measures for his personal safety. [1197] It was
doubtless at this period that the ancient custom was re-established of
allowing a consul, during the month when he had not the fasces, the
right of being preceded by a beadle (_accensus_) and followed by
lictors. [1198]
Without changing the fundamental laws of the Republic, Cæsar had
obtained a great result: he had replaced anarchy by an energetic power,
ruling at the same time the Senate and the comitia; by the mutual
understanding between the three most important men, he had substituted
for personal rivalries a moral authority which enabled him to establish
laws conducive to the prosperity of the empire. But it was essential
that his departure should not entail the fall of the edifice so
laboriously raised. He was not ignorant of the number and power of his
enemies; he knew that if he abandoned to them the forum and the curia,
not only would they reverse his enactments, but they would even deprive
him of his command. If there was any doubt of the degree of hatred of
which he was the object, it would be sufficient to be reminded, that a
year afterwards Ariovistus confessed to him, in an interview on the
banks of the Rhine, that many of the important nobles of Rome had
designs against his life. [1199] Against such animosities he had the
task, no easy one, of directing the elections. The Roman constitution
caused new candidates to spring up every year for honours; and it was
indispensable to have partisans amongst the two consuls, the eight
prætors, and the ten tribunes named in the comitia. At all epochs, even
at the time when the aristocracy exercised the greatest influence, it
could not prevent its opponents from introducing themselves into the
public offices. Moreover, the three who had made common cause had reason
to fear the ambition and ingratitude of the men whom they had raised,
and who would soon seek to become their equals. There was still a last
danger, and perhaps the most serious: it was the impatience and want of
discipline of the democratic party, of which they were the chiefs.
In face of these dangers, the triumvirs agreed to cause L. Piso, the
father-in-law of Cæsar, and A. Gabinius, the devoted partisan of Pompey,
to be elected to the consulship the following year. They were, in fact,
designated consuls on the 18th of October, in spite of the efforts of
the nobles and the accusation of Cato against Gabinius.
At the end of the year 695, Cæsar and Bibulus ceased their functions.
The latter, in reporting his conduct according to custom, endeavoured to
paint in the blackest colours the state of the Republic; but Clodius
prevented him from speaking. [1200] As for Cæsar, his presentiment of the
attacks to which he was to be subjected was only too well founded; for
he had hardly quitted office, when the prætor L. Domitius Ahenobarbus,
and C. Memmius, friends of Cicero,[1201] proposed to the Senate to
prosecute him for the acts committed during his consulate, and
especially for not having paid attention to the omens. From this
proposal the Senate recoiled. [1202] Still, they brought Cæsar’s questor
to trial. He himself was cited by the tribune L. Antistius. But the
whole college refused to entertain the charge, in virtue of the law
Memmia, which forbad an accusation to be entertained against a citizen
while absent on the public service. [1203]
Cæsar found himself once more at the gates of Rome, invested with the
_imperium_, and, according to Cicero’s letters,[1204] at the head of
numerous troops, composed apparently of veteran volunteers. [1205] He
even remained there more than two months, in order to watch that his
departure should not become the signal for the overthrow of his work.
[Sidenote: Law of Clodius. Exile of Cicero. ]
VI. During this time, Clodius, a restless and turbulent spirit,[1206]
proud of the support which he had lent the triumvirs, as well as of
that he had received from them, listened only to his passion, and caused
laws to be enacted, some of which, flattering the populace and even the
slaves, menaced the State with anarchy. In virtue of these laws, he
re-established political associations (_collegia_), clubs dangerous to
public tranquillity,[1207] which Sylla had dissolved, but which were
subsequently reorganised to be again suppressed in 690;[1208] he made
gratuitous distributions of wheat to the people; took from the censors
the right of excluding from the Senate anybody they wished, allowing
them only to reject those who were under condemnation;[1209] forbad the
magistrates taking omens, or observing the sky on the day of the
deliberation of the comitia;[1210] and, lastly, he inflicted severe
penalties on those who had condemned Roman citizens to death unheard.
This last enactment was evidently directed against Cicero, although his
name was not mentioned in it. In order to ensure its adoption, its
author desired the acquiescence of Cæsar, who was detained at the gates
of Rome by the military command, which forbad him to enter. Clodius then
convoked the people outside the walls, and when he asked the proconsul
his opinion, the latter replied that it was well known by his vote in
the affair of the accomplices of Catiline; that, nevertheless, he
disapproved of a law which pronounced penalties upon facts which
belonged to the past. [1211]
On this occasion the Senate went into mourning, in order to exhibit its
discontent to all eyes; but the consuls Gabinius and Piso obliged the
Senate to relinquish this ill-timed demonstration.
Cæsar, in order to defend Cicero from the danger which threatened him,
offered to take him with him to Gaul as his lieutenant. [1212] Cicero
rejected the offer, deceiving himself through his confidence in his own
influence,[1213] and reckoning, moreover, on the protection of Pompey.
It appears positive from this that Clodius exceeded Cæsar’s views, a new
proof that such instruments when employed are two-edged swords, which
even the most skilful hands find it difficult to direct. It is thus that
later, Vatinius, aspiring to become prætor, received from his old patron
this strong warning: “Vatinius has done nothing gratuitously during his
tribuneship; he who only looks for money ought to dispense with
honours. ”[1214] In fact, Cæsar, whose efforts to re-establish the
popular institutions had never slackened, desired neither anarchy nor
democratic laws; and just as he had not approved of the proposal of
Manilius for the emancipation of the freedmen, so he opposed the
reorganisation of the corporations, the gratuitous distributions of
wheat, and the projects of vengeance entertained by Clodius, who,
however, continually boasted of his support.
Crassus, on his part, desiring to be useful to Cicero without
compromising himself,[1215] engaged his son to go to his aid. As for
Pompey, wavering between fear and friendship, he devised a pretext not
to receive Cicero when he came to seek his support. Deprived of this
last resource, the great orator abandoned his delusions, and after some
show of resistance voluntarily withdrew. Scarcely had he quitted Rome
when the law against him was passed without opposition, with the
concurrence of those whom Cicero had looked upon as his friends. [1216]
His goods were confiscated, his house razed, and he was exiled to a
distance of four hundred miles.
Cæsar had skilfully taken precautions that his influence should be felt
at Rome during his absence, as much as the instability of the magistracy
would permit. By the aid of his daughter Julia, whose charms and mental
accomplishments captivated her husband, Cæsar retained his influence
over Pompey. By his favours to the son of Crassus, a young man of great
merit, who was appointed his lieutenant, he assured himself of his
father. Cicero is removed, but soon Cæsar will consent to his return,
and will conciliate him again by taking into his favour his brother
Quintus. There remains the opposition of Cato. Clodius undertakes to
remove him under the pretence of an honourable mission: he is sent to
Cyprus to dethrone King Ptolemy, whose irregularities excited the hatred
of his subjects. [1217] Finally, all the men of importance who had any
chance of obtaining employment are gained to the cause of Cæsar; some
even engage themselves to him by writing. [1218] He can thus proceed to
his province; Destiny is about to open a new path; immortal glory awaits
him beyond the Alps, and this glory, reflected upon Rome, will change
the face of the world.
[Sidenote: The Explanation of Cæsar’s Conduct. ]
VII. We have shown Cæsar obeying only his political convictions, whether
as the ardent promoter of all popular measures, or as the declared
partisan of Pompey; we have shown him aspiring with a noble ambition to
power and honours; but we are not ignorant that historians in general
give other motives for his conduct. They represent him, in 684, as
having already his plans defined, his schemes arranged, his instruments
all prepared. They attribute to him an absolute prescience of the
future, the faculty of directing men and things at his will, and of
rendering each one, unknowingly, the accomplice of his profound designs.
All his actions have a hidden motive, which the historian boasts of
having discovered. If Cæsar raises up again the standard of Marius,
makes himself the defender of the oppressed, and the persecutor of the
hired assassins of past tyranny, it is to acquire a concurrence
necessary to his ambition; if he contends with Cicero in favour of
legality in the trial of the accomplices of Catiline, or to maintain an
agrarian law of which he approves the political aim, or if, to repair a
great injustice of Sylla, he supports the restoration of the children of
the proscribed to their rights, it is for the purpose of compromising
the great orator with the popular party. If, on the contrary, he places
his influence at the service of Pompey; if, on the occasion of the war
against the pirates, he contributes to obtain for him an authority
considered exorbitant; if he seconds the plebiscitum which further
confers upon him the command of the army against Mithridates; if
subsequently he causes extraordinary honours to be awarded him, though
absent, it is still with the Machiavellian aim of making the greatness
of Pompey redound to his own profit. So that, if he defends liberty, it
is to ruin his adversaries; if he defends power, it is to accustom the
Romans to tyranny. Finally, if Cæsar seeks the consulate, like all the
members of the Roman nobility, it is, say they, because he already
foresees, beyond the fasces of the consul and the dust of battles, the
dictatorship and even the throne. Such an interpretation results from
the too common fault of not being able to appreciate facts in
themselves, but according to the complexion which subsequent events have
given them.
Strange inconsistency, to impute to great men at the same time mean
motives and superhuman forethought! No, it was not the miserable thought
of checking Cicero which guided Cæsar; he had not recourse to a tactic
more or less skilful: he obeyed a profound conviction, and what proves
it indisputably is, that, once elevated to power, his first acts are to
execute, as consul or dictator, what as a citizen he had supported:
witness the agrarian law and the restoration of the proscribed. No, if
he supports Pompey, it is not because he thinks that he can degrade him
after having once elevated him, but because this illustrious captain had
embraced the same cause as himself; for it would not have been given to
any one to read so far into the future as to predict the use which the
conqueror of Mithridates would make of his triumphs and veritable
popularity. In fact, when he disembarked in Italy, Rome was in anxiety:
will he disband his army? [1219] Such was from all quarters the cry of
alarm. If he returns as a master, no one is able to resist him. Contrary
to the general expectation, Pompey disbanded his troops. How then could
Cæsar foresee beforehand a moderation then so unusual?
Is it truer to say that Cæsar, having become proconsul, aspired to the
sovereign power? No; in departing for Gaul, he could no more have
thought of reigning over Rome, than could General Buonaparte, starting
for Italy in 1796, have dreamed of the Empire. Was it possible for
Cæsar to foresee that, during a sojourn of ten years in Gaul, he would
there link Fortune to him for ever, and that, at the end of this long
space of time, the public mind at Rome would still be favourable to his
projects? Could he foresee that the death of his daughter would break
the ties which attached him to Pompey? that Crassus, instead of
returning in triumph from the East, would be conquered and slain by the
Parthians? that the murder of Clodius would throw all Italy into
commotion?
and, finally, that anarchy, which he had sought to stifle by
the triumvirate, would be the cause of his own elevation? Cæsar had
before his eyes great examples for his guidance; he marched in the track
of the Scipios and of Paulus Æmilius; the hatred of his enemies forced
him, like Sylla, to seize upon the dictatorship, but for a more noble
cause, and by a course of proceeding exempt from vengeance and cruelty.
Let us not continually seek little passions in great souls. The success
of superior men, and it is a consoling thought, is due rather to the
loftiness of their sentiments than to the speculations of selfishness
and cunning; this success depends much more on their skill in taking
advantage of circumstances, than on that presumption, blind enough to
believe itself capable of creating events, which are in the hands of God
alone. Certainly, Cæsar had faith in his destiny, and confidence in his
genius; but faith is an instinct, not a calculation, and genius foresees
the future without understanding its mysterious progress.
END OF VOL. I.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Montesquieu, _Grandeur et Décadence des Romains_, xviii.
[2] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 22.
[3] “Cæsar resolved to pass into Britain, the people of which had, in
nearly all wars, assisted the Gauls. ” (Cæsar, _Gallic War_, IV. 20. )
[4] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 47.
[5] Appian, _Civil Wars_, I. 110, 326, edit. Schweighæuser.
[6] Cicero, _Epistolæ ad Atticum_, XIV. 10.
[7] In fact, how many disturbances, civil wars, and revolutions in
Europe since 1815! in France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Belgium, Hungary,
Greece, and Germany!
[8] _Grandeur et Décadence des Romains. _
[9] Titus Livius I. 44. --Dionysius of Halicarnassus, speaking of the
portion of the rampart between the Porta Æsquilina and the Porta
Collina, says, “Rome is fortified by a fosse thirty feet deep and a
hundred or more wide in the narrowest part. Above this fosse rises a
wall supported internally by a lofty and wide terrace, so that it cannot
be shaken by battering rams, or overthrown by undermining. ” (_Antiq.
Roman. _, IX. 68. )
[10] “Since that time (the time of Servius Tullius) Rome has been no
farther enlarged . . . and if, in face of this spectacle, any one would
form a notion of the magnitude of Rome, he would certainly fall into
error, for he would not be able to distinguish where the town ends and
where it is limited, so close the suburbs come up to the town. . . . The
Aventine, till the reign of Claudius, remained outside the Pomœrium,
notwithstanding its numerous inhabitants. ” (Aulus Gellius, XIII.
14. --Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 13. )
[11] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 49.
[12] “By this treaty, the Romans and their allies engage not to navigate
beyond the Bonum Promontorium (a cape situated to the north and opposite
Carthage, and now called by navigators the Cape of _Porto-Farino_). . . .
The Carthaginians undertake to respect the Ardeates, the Antiates, the
Laurentes, the Circeii, the Tarracinians, and indeed all the Latin
peoples subject to Rome. ” (Polybius, III. 22. )
[13] “When Tarquinius Priscus regulated, with the foresight of a skilful
prince, the state of the citizens, he attached great importance to the
dress of children of condition; and he decreed that the sons of
patricians should wear the bulla with the robe hemmed with purple: but
even this privilege was restricted to the children of those fathers who
had exercised a curule dignity; the sons of other patricians had merely
the prætexta, and it was necessary that even their fathers should have
served the prescribed time in the cavalry. ” (Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, I.
6. )
[14] “The plebeians were excluded from all offices, and put only to
agriculture, the breeding of cattle, and mercantile occupations. ”
(Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 9. )--“Numa encouraged the
agriculturists; they were excused from service in war, and discharged
from the care of municipal affairs. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II.
76. )
[15] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 9. --Plutarch, _Romulus_, 13.
[16] “Agrorum partes attribuerant tenuioribus. ” (Festus, under the word
_Patres_, p. 246, edit. O. Müller. )
[17] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 24.
[18] These questions have been the object of learned researches; but,
after an attentive perusal of the works of Beaufort, Niebuhr, Gœttling,
Duruy, Marquardt, Mommsen, Lange, &c. , the difference of opinions is
discouraging: we have adopted those which appeared most probable.
[19] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, V. 40. --Titus Livius, II. 16.
[20] Titus Livius, II. 48. --Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IX. 15.
[21] Titus Livius, II. 64.
[22] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, X. 15.
[23] “They called a _decree of the people_ (_scitum populi_) the measure
which the order of patricians had voted, on the proposal of a patrician,
without the participation of the plebs. ” (See Festus, under the words
_Scitum populi_, p. 330. )--Titus Livius, speaking of the tribunes, puts
the following words into the mouth of Appius Claudius: “Non enim
_populi_, sed _plebis_, eum magistratum esse. ” (Titus Livius, II. 56. )
[24] “The plebs was composed of all the mass of the people which was
neither senator nor patrician. ” (See Festus, under the words _Scitum
populi_. )
[25] “Populus autem non omnis hominum cœtus quoquo modo congregatus, sed
cœtus multitudinis juris consensu et utilitatis communione
sociatus. ”--(Cicero, _De Republica_, I. 25. )
[26] “Populus curiatis eum (Numam) comitiis regem esse jusserat. Tullum
Hostilium populus regem, interrege rogante, comitiis curiatis creavit.
Servius, Tarquinio sepulto, populum de se ipse consuluit jussusque
regnare legem de imperio suo curiatam tulit. ” (Cicero, _De Republica_,
II. 13-21. )
[27] “The predecessors of Servius Tullius brought all causes before
their tribunal, and pronounced judgment themselves in all disputes which
regarded the State or individuals. He separated these two things, and,
reserving to himself the cognizance of affairs which concerned the
State, abandoned to other judges the causes of individuals, with
injunctions, nevertheless, to regulate their judgments according to the
laws which he had passed. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 25. )
[28] “The consuls, like the ancient kings, have twelve lictors carrying
axes and twelve lictors carrying rods. ” (Appian, _Syrian Wars_, 15. )
[29] “From that time Tarquinius Superbus carried, during the rest of his
life, a crown of gold, a toga of embroidered purple, and a sceptre of
ivory, and his throne was also of ivory; when he administered justice,
or walked abroad in the town, he was preceded by twelve lictors, who
carried axes surrounded with rods. (_Dionysius overlooks the twelve
other lictors who carried rods only. _) After the kings had been expelled
from Rome, the annual consuls continued to use all these insignia,
except the crown and the robe with purple embroidery. These two only
were withdrawn, because they were odious and disagreeable to the people.
But even these were not entirely abolished, since they still used
ornaments of gold and dress of embroidered purple, when, after a
victory, the Senate decreed them the honours of the triumph. ” (Dionysius
of Halicarnassus, III. 62. )
[30] “The soldiers of Romulus, to the number of three thousand, were
divided into three bodies, called ‘tribes. ’” (Dio Cassius, _Fragm. _,
XIV. , edit. Gros. --Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 7. --Plutarch,
_Romulus_, 25. )--“The name of tribune of the soldiers is derived from
the circumstance that the three tribes of the Ramnes, the Luceres, and
the Tatiens each sent three to the army. ” (Varro, _De Lingua Latina_, V.
§ 81, p. 32, edit. O. Müller. )
[31] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 35. Attempts have been made to
explain in different ways the origin of the word _curia_. Some have
derived it from the word _curare_, or from the name of the town of
_Cures_, or from κὑριος, “a lord:” it seems more natural to trace it to
_quiris_ (_curis_), which had the signification of a lance (Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, II. 48. --Plutarch, _Romulus_, for thus we obtain a term
analogous with that of the Middle Ages, where _spear_ signified a
_man-at-arms_, accompanied by six or eight armed followers. And as the
principal aim of the formation of the curia was to furnish a certain
number of armed citizens, it is possible that they may have given to the
whole the name of a part. We read in Ovid, _Fasti_, II. lines 477-480:--
“Sive quod hasta curis priscis est dicta Sabinis,
Bellicus a telo venit in astra deus:
Sive suo regi nomen posuere Quirites,
Seu quis Romanis junxerat ille Cures. ”
[32] Titus Livius, 1. 43.
[33] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 14, and IV. 20.
[34] “The appeal to the people existed even under the kings, as the
books of the pontiffs show. ” (Cicero, _De Republica_, II. 31. )
[35] Plutarch, _Numa_, 17. --Pliny, _Natural History_, XXXIV. 1.
[36] “Servius Tullius conformed no longer as aforetime to the ancient
order of three tribes, distinguished by _origin_, but to the four new
tribes which he had established by _quarters_. ” (Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, IV. 14. )
[37] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, III. 61. --Titus Livius, I. 35.
[38] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 22.
[39] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 19. “Servius Tullius, by these
means, threw back upon the richest all the costs and dangers of war. ”
(Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 20. )
[40] “If Numa was the legislator of the religious institutions,
posterity proclaims Servius as the founder of the order which
distinguishes in the Republic the difference of rank, dignity, and
fortune. It was he who established the _census_, the most salutary of
all institutions for a people destined to so much greatness. Fortunes,
and not individuals, were called upon to support the burdens of the
State. The _census_ established the classes, the centuries, and that
order which constitutes the ornament of Rome during peace and its
strength daring war. ” (Titus Livius, I. 42. )
[41] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 16.
[42] “When Servius Tullius had completed the taking of the census, he
ordered all the citizens to assemble in arms in the greatest of the
fields situated near the town, and, having arranged the horsemen in
squadrons, the footmen in phalanx, and the light-armed men in respective
orders, he submitted them to a lustration, by the immolation of a bull,
a ram, and a he-goat. He ordered that the victims should be led thrice
round about the army, after which he sacrificed to Mars, to whom this
field was dedicated. From that epoch to the present time the Romans have
continued to have the same ceremony performed, by the most holy of
magistracies, at the completion of each census; it is what they call a
_lustrum_. The total number of all the Romans enumerated, according to
the writing of the tables of the census, gave 300 men less than 85,000. ”
(Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 22. )
[43] “This good order of government (under Servius Tullius) was
sustained among the Romans during several centuries, but in our days it
has been changed, and, by force of circumstances, has given place to a
more democratic system. It is not that the centuries have been
abolished, but the voters were no longer called together with the
ancient regularity, and their judgments have no longer the same equity,
as I have observed in my frequent attendance at the comitia. ” (Dionysius
of Halicarnassus, IV. 21. )
[44] “The poorest citizens, in spite of their great number, were the
last to give their vote, and made but one century. ” (Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, IV. 21. )
[45] Titus Livius, I. 43.
[46] “From the age of seventeen years, they were called to be soldiers.
Youth began with that age, and continued to the age of forty-six. At
that date old age began. ” (Aulus Gellius, X. 28. --Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, IV. 16. )
[47] Titus Livius speaks only of a hundred and ninety-two centuries;
Dionysius of Halicarnassus reckons a hundred and ninety-three. “In the
Roman plebs, the poorest citizens, those who reported to the census not
more than fifteen hundred _ases_, were called _proletarii_; those who
were not worth more than three hundred and seventy-five _ases_, and who
thus possessed hardly anything, were called _capite censi_. Now, the
fortune and patrimony of the citizen being for the State a sort of
guarantee, the pledge and foundation of his love for his country, the
men of the two last classes were only enrolled in case of extreme
danger. Yet the position of the _proletarii_ was a little more
honourable than that of the _capite censi_; in times of difficulty, when
there was want of young men, they were incorporated in the
hastily-formed militia, and equipped at the cost of the State; their
name contained no allusion to the mere poll-tax to which they were
subjected; less humiliating, it reminded one only of their destination
to give children to their country. The scantiness of their patrimony
preventing them from contributing to the aid of the State, they at least
contributed to the population of the city. ” (Aulus Gellius, XVI. 10. )
[48] “Tarquinius Priscus afterwards gave to the knights the organisation
which they have preserved to the present time. ” (Cicero, _De Republica_,
II. 20. )
[49] “It is said that the number of citizens inscribed under this title
was 80,000.
The generals were in the habit of burdening the people they governed
with exorbitant exactions. They extorted from them crowns of gold
(_aurum coronarium_), of considerable value, under pretence of the
triumph, and obliged the countries through which they passed to bear the
expenses of themselves and their attendants. Cæsar remedied these
abuses, by forbidding the proconsuls to demand the crown before the
triumph had been decreed,[1153] and by subjecting to the most rigorous
restrictions the contributions in kind which were to be furnished. [1154]
We may judge how necessary these regulations were from the fact that
Cicero, whose government was justly considered an honest one, admits
that he drew large sums from his province of Cilicia eight years after
the passing of the law Julia. [1155]
The same law forbad all governors to leave their provinces, or to send
their troops out of them to interfere in the affairs of any neighbouring
State, without permission of the Senate and the people,[1156] or to
extort any money from the inhabitants of the provinces. [1157]
The law by similar provisions diminished the abuse of free legations
(_legationes liberæ_). This was the name given to the missions of
senators, who, travelling into the provinces on their own affairs,
obtained by an abuse the title of envoy of the Roman people, to which
they had no right, in order to be defrayed the expenses and costs of
travelling. These missions, which were for an indefinite time, were the
subject of incessant[1158] complaints. Cicero had limited them to a
year: Cæsar prescribed a still narrower limit, but its exact length is
unknown. [1159]
As a supplement to the preceding measures he brought in a law (_De
pecuniis repetundis_), the provisions of which have often been
confounded with those of the law _De provinciis ordinandis_. Cicero
boasts of its perfection[1160] and justice. It contained a great number
of sections. In a letter from Cœlius to Cicero, the 101st chapter of
the law is referred to. Its object was to meet all cases of peculation,
out of Italy as well as in Rome. Persons who had been wronged could
demand restitution before a legal tribunal of the sums unjustly
collected. [1161] Though the principal provisions of it were borrowed
from the law of Sylla on the same subject, the penalty was more severe
and the proceedings more expeditious. For instance, as the rich
contrived, by going into voluntary exile before the verdict, to elude
the punishment, it was provided that in that case their goods should be
confiscated, in part or wholly, according to the nature of the
crime. [1162] If the fortune of the defendant was not sufficient for the
repayment of the money claimed, all those who had profited by the
embezzlement were sought out and jointly condemned. [1163] Finally,
corruption was attacked in all its forms,[1164] and the law went so far
as to watch over the honesty of business transactions. One article
deserves special remark, that which forbad a public work to be accepted
as completed if it were not absolutely finished. Cæsar had doubtless in
mind the process which he had unsuccessfully instituted against Catulus
for his failure to complete the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.
We may for the most part consider as Cæsar’s laws those which were
passed at his instigation, whether by the tribune P. Vatinius, or the
prætor Q. Fufius Calenus. [1165]
One of the laws of the former authorised the accuser in a suit, as well
as the accused, to challenge for once all the judges: down to this time
they had only been permitted to challenge a certain number. [1166] Its
object was to give to all the same guarantee which Sylla had reserved
exclusively to the senators, since for the knights and plebeians he
limited the challenge to three. [1167] Vatinius had also conferred on
five thousand colonists, established at Como (_Novum Comum_), the rights
of a Roman city. This measure[1168] flattered the pride of Pompey, whose
father, Pompeius Strabo, had rebuilt the town of Comum; and it offered
to other colonists the hope of obtaining the qualification of Roman
citizens, which Cæsar subsequently granted to them. [1169]
Another devoted partisan of the consul, the prætor Q. Fufius
Calenus,[1170] proposed a law which in judicial deliberations laid the
responsibility upon each of the three orders of which the tribunal was
composed: the senators, the knights, and the tribunes of the treasury.
Instead of pronouncing a collective judgment, they were called upon to
express their opinion separately. Dio Cassius explains the law in these
terms: “Seeing that in a process all the votes were mixed together, and
that each order took to itself the credit of the good decisions, and
threw the bad ones to the account of the others, Calenus had a law made
that the different orders should vote independently, in order to know
thus, not the opinion of individuals, since the vote was secret, but
that of each order. ”[1171]
All the laws of Cæsar were styled “Julian laws;” they received the
sanction of the Senate, and were adopted without opposition,[1172] and
even Cato himself did not oppose them; but when he became prætor, and
found himself obliged to put them into execution, he was little-minded
enough to object to call them by their name. [1173]
We may be convinced by the above facts, that, during his first
consulship, Cæsar was animated by a single motive, the public interest.
His ruling thought was to remedy the evils which afflicted the country.
His acts, which several historians have impeached as subversive and
inspired by boundless ambition, we find, on an attentive examination, to
be the result of a wise policy, and the carrying out of a well-known
plan, proclaimed formerly by the Gracchi, and recently by Pompey
himself. Like the Gracchi, Cæsar desired a distribution of the public
domain, the reform of justice, the relief of the provinces, and the
extension of the rights of city; like them, he had protected the
knightly order, so that he might oppose it to the formidable resistance
of the Senate; but he, more fortunate, accomplished that which the
Gracchi had been unable to realise. Plutarch, in the life of
Crassus,[1174] pronounces a eulogium on the wisdom of his government,
although an intemperate judgment had led that writer, elsewhere, to
compare his conduct to that of a factious tribune. [1175]
Following the taste of the age, and especially as a means of popularity,
Cæsar gave splendid games, shows, and gladiatorial combats, borrowing
from Pompey and Atticus considerable sums to meet his love of display,
his profusion, and his largesses. [1176] Suetonius, ever ready to record,
without distinction, the reports, true and false, current at the time,
relates that Cæsar had taken from the treasury three thousand pounds of
gold, for which he substituted gilt metal; but his high character is
sufficient to refute this calumny. Cicero, who had not, at this time,
any reason to spare him, makes no mention of it in his letters, where
his ill-humour displays itself, nor in his speech against Vatinius, one
of Cæsar’s devoted friends. On the other hand, Pliny[1177] mentions a
similar fact which happened during Pompey’s consulate.
[Sidenote: Cæsar receives the Government of the Gauls. ]
IV. Cæsar did not confine his ambition to discharging the functions of a
consul and legislator: he desired to obtain a command worthy of the
elevation of his genius, to extend the frontiers of the Republic, and to
preserve them from the invasion of their most powerful enemies. It will
be remembered that at the time of the election of the consuls, the
Senate had conferred upon them the superintendence of the woods and
public roads. He had, therefore, slender grounds to expect a return of
friendly feeling on the part of that assembly, and, if the distribution
of governments was vested in them, history offered examples of provinces
given by vote of the people. Numidia was assigned to Marius on the
proposal of the tribune L. Manlius; and L. Lucullus, having received
Cisalpine Gaul from the Senate, obtained Cilicia from the people. [1178]
It was thus that the command of Asia had been conferred upon Pompey.
Strong in these precedents, Vatinius proposed to the people to confer
upon Cæsar, for five years, the command of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyria,
with three legions. [1179] Pompey supported this proposal with all his
influence. The friends of Crassus,[1180] Claudius[1181] and L. Piso,
gave their votes in favour of this law.
At first, it appeared strange that the proposal of the tribune only
included Cisalpine Gaul, without reference to the other side of the
Alps, which alone offered chances of acquiring glory. But, on
reflection, we discover how skilful and politic was this manner of
putting the question. To solicit at the same time the government of both
the Gauls might have seemed exorbitant, and likely to expose him to
failure. To demand the government of Gaul proper was dangerous, for if
he had obtained it without Cisalpine Gaul, which would have devolved
upon another proconsul, Cæsar would have found himself completely
separated from Italy, inasmuch as it would have been impossible for him
to repair thither during the winter, and so preserve continuous
relations with Rome. The proposal of Vatinius, on the contrary, having
for its object only Cisalpine Gaul and Illyria, they could scarcely
refuse a command limited to the ordinary bounds, and Cæsar acquired
thereby a solid basis for operations in the midst of devoted
populations, where his legions could be easily recruited. As to the
province beyond the Alps, it was probable that some fortuitous
circumstance, or new proposal, would place it under his orders. This
happened sooner than he expected, for the Senate, by a skilful, but at
this time unusual, determination, added to his command a third province,
Gallia Comata, or Transalpine, and a fourth legion. The Senate thus
obtained for itself the credit of an initiative, which the people would
have taken of itself had it not been anticipated. [1182]
Transported with joy at this news, Cæsar, according to Suetonius,
exclaimed in the full Senate, that now, having succeeded to the utmost
of his desire in spite of his enemies, he would march over their
heads. [1183] This story is not probable. He was too prudent to provoke
his enemies in their face at the moment he was going to a distance from
Rome. “Always master of himself,” says an old writer, “he never
needlessly ran against anybody. ”[1184]
[Sidenote: Opposition of the Patricians. ]
V. Whilst, contending with the most serious difficulties, Cæsar
endeavoured to establish the Republic on the securest foundations, the
aristocratic party consoled itself for its successive defeats by a petty
war of sarcasm and chicanery. At the theatre they applauded all the
injurious allusions of Pompey, and received Cæsar with coldness. [1185]
Bibulus, the son-in-law of Cato, published libels containing the
grossest attacks. He renewed the accusation of plotting against the
Republic, and of the pretended shameful relations with Nicomedes. [1186]
People rushed to read and copy these insulting placards. Cicero gladly
sent them to Atticus. [1187] The party, too, to which Bibulus belonged,
extolled him to the skies, and made him a great man. [1188] His
opposition, however, had only succeeded in postponing the consular
comitia until the month of October. This prorogation was made in the
hope of preventing the election of consuls friendly to the triumvirs.
Cæsar, on this occasion, attacked him in a violent speech, and Vatinius
proposed to arrest him. Pompey, on his part, moved by invectives to
which he was unaccustomed, complained to the people of the animosity of
which he was the object; but his speech does not appear to have been
attended with much success.
It is sad to see the accomplishment of great things often thwarted by
the little passions of short-sighted men, who only know the world in the
small circle to which their life is confined. By seconding Cæsar,
Bibulus might have obtained an honourable reputation. He preferred being
the hero of a coterie, and sought to obtain the interested applause of a
few selfish senators, rather than, with his colleague, to merit public
gratitude. Cicero, on his part, mistook for a true expression of opinion
the clamours of a desperate faction. He was, moreover, one of those who
find that all fares well while they are themselves in power, and that
everything is endangered when they are out. In his letters to Atticus he
speaks of the general hatred to these new kings, predicts their
approaching fall, and exclaims,[1189] “What murmurs! what irritation!
what hatred against our friend Pompey! His name of _great_ is growing
old like that of _rich_ Crassus. ”[1190]
He explains, with a perfect naïveté, the consolation which his self-love
finds in the abasement of him who was formerly the object of his
admiration. “I was tormented with fear that the services which Pompey
rendered to our country should hereafter appear greater than mine. I
have quite recovered from it. He is so low, so very low, that Curius
himself appears to me a giant beside him. ”[1191] And he adds, “Now there
is nothing more popular than to hate the popular men; they have no one
on their side. They know it, and it is this which makes me fear a resort
to violence. I cannot think without shuddering of the explosions which
are inevitable. ”[1192] The hatred which he bore to Clodius and Valerius
misled his judgment.
Whilst Cæsar laboriously pursued the course of his destiny, the genius
of Cicero, instead of understanding the future and hastening progress by
his co-operation, resisted the general impulse, denied its evidence, and
could not perceive the greatness of the cause through the faults of
certain adherents to power.
Cæsar bore uneasily the attacks of Cicero; but, like all who are guided
by great political views, superior to resentment, he conciliated
everything which might exercise an ascendency over people’s minds; and
the eloquence of Cicero was a power. Dio Cassius thus explains the
conduct of Cæsar: “He did not wound Cicero either by his words or his
acts. He said that often many men designedly throw vain sarcasm against
those who are above them in order to drive them to dispute, in the hope
of appearing to have some resemblance to them, and be put in the same
rank if they succeed in being abused in return. Cæsar therefore judged
that he ought not to enter the lists with anybody. Such was his rule of
conduct towards those who insulted him, and, as he saw very well that
Cicero sought less to offend him than to provoke him to make some
injurious reply, from the desire which he had to be looked upon as his
equal, he took no notice of him, made no account of what he said, and
even allowed Cicero to insult him as he liked, and to praise himself
beyond measure. However, he was far from despising him, but, naturally
gentle, his anger was not easily aroused. He had much to punish, as must
be the case with one mixed up with great affairs, but he never yielded
to passion. ”[1193]
An incident occurred which showed all the animosity of a certain party.
L. Vettius, an old spy of Cicero’s in the Catiline conspiracy, punished
for having falsely accused Cæsar, was arrested on suspicion of wishing
to attempt his life, as well as that of Pompey. A poniard was found upon
him; and, being interrogated before the Senate, he denounced, as the
instigators of his crime, the young Curio, Cæpio, Brutus, Lentulus,
Cato, Lucullus, Piso, son-in-law of Cicero, Cicero himself, M.
Laterensis, and others. He also named Bibulus, which removed all air of
probability from his accusations, Bibulus having already warned Pompey
to be on his guard. [1194] Historians, such as Dio Cassius, Appian, and
Plutarch, treat this plot seriously; the first maintains expressly that
Cicero and Lucullus had armed the hand of the assassin. Suetonius, on
the contrary, reproaches Cæsar with having suborned Vettius in order to
throw the blame upon his adversaries.
In face of these contradictory informations, it is best, as in the case
of an ordinary lawsuit, to estimate the worth of the charge according to
the previous character of the accused. Now, Cicero, notwithstanding his
instability, was too honest to have a hand in a plot for assassination,
and Cæsar had too elevated a character and too great a consciousness of
his power to lower himself so far as to seek, in a miserable intrigue,
the means of augmenting his influence. A _senatus-consultum_ caused
Vettius to be thrown into prison; but Cæsar, interested in, and resolved
on, the discovery of the truth, referred the matter to the people, and
forced Vettius to mount the tribune of the orators. He, with a
suspicious versatility, denounced those whom he had before acquitted,
and cleared those whom he had denounced, and among others, Brutus. With
regard to the latter, it was pretended that this change was due to
Cæsar’s connection with his mother. Vettius was remanded to prison, and
found dead next day. Cicero accused Vatinius of killing him;[1195] but,
according to others, the true authors of his death were those who had
urged him into this disgraceful intrigue, and were in fear of his
revelations. [1196]
The comparison of these various accounts leads us to conclude that this
obscure agent of dark intrigues had made himself the instigator of a
plot, in order to have the merit of revealing it, and to attract the
favour of Cæsar by pointing to his political adversaries as accomplices.
Nevertheless, the event turned to the profit of Cæsar, and the people
permitted him to take measures for his personal safety. [1197] It was
doubtless at this period that the ancient custom was re-established of
allowing a consul, during the month when he had not the fasces, the
right of being preceded by a beadle (_accensus_) and followed by
lictors. [1198]
Without changing the fundamental laws of the Republic, Cæsar had
obtained a great result: he had replaced anarchy by an energetic power,
ruling at the same time the Senate and the comitia; by the mutual
understanding between the three most important men, he had substituted
for personal rivalries a moral authority which enabled him to establish
laws conducive to the prosperity of the empire. But it was essential
that his departure should not entail the fall of the edifice so
laboriously raised. He was not ignorant of the number and power of his
enemies; he knew that if he abandoned to them the forum and the curia,
not only would they reverse his enactments, but they would even deprive
him of his command. If there was any doubt of the degree of hatred of
which he was the object, it would be sufficient to be reminded, that a
year afterwards Ariovistus confessed to him, in an interview on the
banks of the Rhine, that many of the important nobles of Rome had
designs against his life. [1199] Against such animosities he had the
task, no easy one, of directing the elections. The Roman constitution
caused new candidates to spring up every year for honours; and it was
indispensable to have partisans amongst the two consuls, the eight
prætors, and the ten tribunes named in the comitia. At all epochs, even
at the time when the aristocracy exercised the greatest influence, it
could not prevent its opponents from introducing themselves into the
public offices. Moreover, the three who had made common cause had reason
to fear the ambition and ingratitude of the men whom they had raised,
and who would soon seek to become their equals. There was still a last
danger, and perhaps the most serious: it was the impatience and want of
discipline of the democratic party, of which they were the chiefs.
In face of these dangers, the triumvirs agreed to cause L. Piso, the
father-in-law of Cæsar, and A. Gabinius, the devoted partisan of Pompey,
to be elected to the consulship the following year. They were, in fact,
designated consuls on the 18th of October, in spite of the efforts of
the nobles and the accusation of Cato against Gabinius.
At the end of the year 695, Cæsar and Bibulus ceased their functions.
The latter, in reporting his conduct according to custom, endeavoured to
paint in the blackest colours the state of the Republic; but Clodius
prevented him from speaking. [1200] As for Cæsar, his presentiment of the
attacks to which he was to be subjected was only too well founded; for
he had hardly quitted office, when the prætor L. Domitius Ahenobarbus,
and C. Memmius, friends of Cicero,[1201] proposed to the Senate to
prosecute him for the acts committed during his consulate, and
especially for not having paid attention to the omens. From this
proposal the Senate recoiled. [1202] Still, they brought Cæsar’s questor
to trial. He himself was cited by the tribune L. Antistius. But the
whole college refused to entertain the charge, in virtue of the law
Memmia, which forbad an accusation to be entertained against a citizen
while absent on the public service. [1203]
Cæsar found himself once more at the gates of Rome, invested with the
_imperium_, and, according to Cicero’s letters,[1204] at the head of
numerous troops, composed apparently of veteran volunteers. [1205] He
even remained there more than two months, in order to watch that his
departure should not become the signal for the overthrow of his work.
[Sidenote: Law of Clodius. Exile of Cicero. ]
VI. During this time, Clodius, a restless and turbulent spirit,[1206]
proud of the support which he had lent the triumvirs, as well as of
that he had received from them, listened only to his passion, and caused
laws to be enacted, some of which, flattering the populace and even the
slaves, menaced the State with anarchy. In virtue of these laws, he
re-established political associations (_collegia_), clubs dangerous to
public tranquillity,[1207] which Sylla had dissolved, but which were
subsequently reorganised to be again suppressed in 690;[1208] he made
gratuitous distributions of wheat to the people; took from the censors
the right of excluding from the Senate anybody they wished, allowing
them only to reject those who were under condemnation;[1209] forbad the
magistrates taking omens, or observing the sky on the day of the
deliberation of the comitia;[1210] and, lastly, he inflicted severe
penalties on those who had condemned Roman citizens to death unheard.
This last enactment was evidently directed against Cicero, although his
name was not mentioned in it. In order to ensure its adoption, its
author desired the acquiescence of Cæsar, who was detained at the gates
of Rome by the military command, which forbad him to enter. Clodius then
convoked the people outside the walls, and when he asked the proconsul
his opinion, the latter replied that it was well known by his vote in
the affair of the accomplices of Catiline; that, nevertheless, he
disapproved of a law which pronounced penalties upon facts which
belonged to the past. [1211]
On this occasion the Senate went into mourning, in order to exhibit its
discontent to all eyes; but the consuls Gabinius and Piso obliged the
Senate to relinquish this ill-timed demonstration.
Cæsar, in order to defend Cicero from the danger which threatened him,
offered to take him with him to Gaul as his lieutenant. [1212] Cicero
rejected the offer, deceiving himself through his confidence in his own
influence,[1213] and reckoning, moreover, on the protection of Pompey.
It appears positive from this that Clodius exceeded Cæsar’s views, a new
proof that such instruments when employed are two-edged swords, which
even the most skilful hands find it difficult to direct. It is thus that
later, Vatinius, aspiring to become prætor, received from his old patron
this strong warning: “Vatinius has done nothing gratuitously during his
tribuneship; he who only looks for money ought to dispense with
honours. ”[1214] In fact, Cæsar, whose efforts to re-establish the
popular institutions had never slackened, desired neither anarchy nor
democratic laws; and just as he had not approved of the proposal of
Manilius for the emancipation of the freedmen, so he opposed the
reorganisation of the corporations, the gratuitous distributions of
wheat, and the projects of vengeance entertained by Clodius, who,
however, continually boasted of his support.
Crassus, on his part, desiring to be useful to Cicero without
compromising himself,[1215] engaged his son to go to his aid. As for
Pompey, wavering between fear and friendship, he devised a pretext not
to receive Cicero when he came to seek his support. Deprived of this
last resource, the great orator abandoned his delusions, and after some
show of resistance voluntarily withdrew. Scarcely had he quitted Rome
when the law against him was passed without opposition, with the
concurrence of those whom Cicero had looked upon as his friends. [1216]
His goods were confiscated, his house razed, and he was exiled to a
distance of four hundred miles.
Cæsar had skilfully taken precautions that his influence should be felt
at Rome during his absence, as much as the instability of the magistracy
would permit. By the aid of his daughter Julia, whose charms and mental
accomplishments captivated her husband, Cæsar retained his influence
over Pompey. By his favours to the son of Crassus, a young man of great
merit, who was appointed his lieutenant, he assured himself of his
father. Cicero is removed, but soon Cæsar will consent to his return,
and will conciliate him again by taking into his favour his brother
Quintus. There remains the opposition of Cato. Clodius undertakes to
remove him under the pretence of an honourable mission: he is sent to
Cyprus to dethrone King Ptolemy, whose irregularities excited the hatred
of his subjects. [1217] Finally, all the men of importance who had any
chance of obtaining employment are gained to the cause of Cæsar; some
even engage themselves to him by writing. [1218] He can thus proceed to
his province; Destiny is about to open a new path; immortal glory awaits
him beyond the Alps, and this glory, reflected upon Rome, will change
the face of the world.
[Sidenote: The Explanation of Cæsar’s Conduct. ]
VII. We have shown Cæsar obeying only his political convictions, whether
as the ardent promoter of all popular measures, or as the declared
partisan of Pompey; we have shown him aspiring with a noble ambition to
power and honours; but we are not ignorant that historians in general
give other motives for his conduct. They represent him, in 684, as
having already his plans defined, his schemes arranged, his instruments
all prepared. They attribute to him an absolute prescience of the
future, the faculty of directing men and things at his will, and of
rendering each one, unknowingly, the accomplice of his profound designs.
All his actions have a hidden motive, which the historian boasts of
having discovered. If Cæsar raises up again the standard of Marius,
makes himself the defender of the oppressed, and the persecutor of the
hired assassins of past tyranny, it is to acquire a concurrence
necessary to his ambition; if he contends with Cicero in favour of
legality in the trial of the accomplices of Catiline, or to maintain an
agrarian law of which he approves the political aim, or if, to repair a
great injustice of Sylla, he supports the restoration of the children of
the proscribed to their rights, it is for the purpose of compromising
the great orator with the popular party. If, on the contrary, he places
his influence at the service of Pompey; if, on the occasion of the war
against the pirates, he contributes to obtain for him an authority
considered exorbitant; if he seconds the plebiscitum which further
confers upon him the command of the army against Mithridates; if
subsequently he causes extraordinary honours to be awarded him, though
absent, it is still with the Machiavellian aim of making the greatness
of Pompey redound to his own profit. So that, if he defends liberty, it
is to ruin his adversaries; if he defends power, it is to accustom the
Romans to tyranny. Finally, if Cæsar seeks the consulate, like all the
members of the Roman nobility, it is, say they, because he already
foresees, beyond the fasces of the consul and the dust of battles, the
dictatorship and even the throne. Such an interpretation results from
the too common fault of not being able to appreciate facts in
themselves, but according to the complexion which subsequent events have
given them.
Strange inconsistency, to impute to great men at the same time mean
motives and superhuman forethought! No, it was not the miserable thought
of checking Cicero which guided Cæsar; he had not recourse to a tactic
more or less skilful: he obeyed a profound conviction, and what proves
it indisputably is, that, once elevated to power, his first acts are to
execute, as consul or dictator, what as a citizen he had supported:
witness the agrarian law and the restoration of the proscribed. No, if
he supports Pompey, it is not because he thinks that he can degrade him
after having once elevated him, but because this illustrious captain had
embraced the same cause as himself; for it would not have been given to
any one to read so far into the future as to predict the use which the
conqueror of Mithridates would make of his triumphs and veritable
popularity. In fact, when he disembarked in Italy, Rome was in anxiety:
will he disband his army? [1219] Such was from all quarters the cry of
alarm. If he returns as a master, no one is able to resist him. Contrary
to the general expectation, Pompey disbanded his troops. How then could
Cæsar foresee beforehand a moderation then so unusual?
Is it truer to say that Cæsar, having become proconsul, aspired to the
sovereign power? No; in departing for Gaul, he could no more have
thought of reigning over Rome, than could General Buonaparte, starting
for Italy in 1796, have dreamed of the Empire. Was it possible for
Cæsar to foresee that, during a sojourn of ten years in Gaul, he would
there link Fortune to him for ever, and that, at the end of this long
space of time, the public mind at Rome would still be favourable to his
projects? Could he foresee that the death of his daughter would break
the ties which attached him to Pompey? that Crassus, instead of
returning in triumph from the East, would be conquered and slain by the
Parthians? that the murder of Clodius would throw all Italy into
commotion?
and, finally, that anarchy, which he had sought to stifle by
the triumvirate, would be the cause of his own elevation? Cæsar had
before his eyes great examples for his guidance; he marched in the track
of the Scipios and of Paulus Æmilius; the hatred of his enemies forced
him, like Sylla, to seize upon the dictatorship, but for a more noble
cause, and by a course of proceeding exempt from vengeance and cruelty.
Let us not continually seek little passions in great souls. The success
of superior men, and it is a consoling thought, is due rather to the
loftiness of their sentiments than to the speculations of selfishness
and cunning; this success depends much more on their skill in taking
advantage of circumstances, than on that presumption, blind enough to
believe itself capable of creating events, which are in the hands of God
alone. Certainly, Cæsar had faith in his destiny, and confidence in his
genius; but faith is an instinct, not a calculation, and genius foresees
the future without understanding its mysterious progress.
END OF VOL. I.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Montesquieu, _Grandeur et Décadence des Romains_, xviii.
[2] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 22.
[3] “Cæsar resolved to pass into Britain, the people of which had, in
nearly all wars, assisted the Gauls. ” (Cæsar, _Gallic War_, IV. 20. )
[4] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 47.
[5] Appian, _Civil Wars_, I. 110, 326, edit. Schweighæuser.
[6] Cicero, _Epistolæ ad Atticum_, XIV. 10.
[7] In fact, how many disturbances, civil wars, and revolutions in
Europe since 1815! in France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Belgium, Hungary,
Greece, and Germany!
[8] _Grandeur et Décadence des Romains. _
[9] Titus Livius I. 44. --Dionysius of Halicarnassus, speaking of the
portion of the rampart between the Porta Æsquilina and the Porta
Collina, says, “Rome is fortified by a fosse thirty feet deep and a
hundred or more wide in the narrowest part. Above this fosse rises a
wall supported internally by a lofty and wide terrace, so that it cannot
be shaken by battering rams, or overthrown by undermining. ” (_Antiq.
Roman. _, IX. 68. )
[10] “Since that time (the time of Servius Tullius) Rome has been no
farther enlarged . . . and if, in face of this spectacle, any one would
form a notion of the magnitude of Rome, he would certainly fall into
error, for he would not be able to distinguish where the town ends and
where it is limited, so close the suburbs come up to the town. . . . The
Aventine, till the reign of Claudius, remained outside the Pomœrium,
notwithstanding its numerous inhabitants. ” (Aulus Gellius, XIII.
14. --Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 13. )
[11] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 49.
[12] “By this treaty, the Romans and their allies engage not to navigate
beyond the Bonum Promontorium (a cape situated to the north and opposite
Carthage, and now called by navigators the Cape of _Porto-Farino_). . . .
The Carthaginians undertake to respect the Ardeates, the Antiates, the
Laurentes, the Circeii, the Tarracinians, and indeed all the Latin
peoples subject to Rome. ” (Polybius, III. 22. )
[13] “When Tarquinius Priscus regulated, with the foresight of a skilful
prince, the state of the citizens, he attached great importance to the
dress of children of condition; and he decreed that the sons of
patricians should wear the bulla with the robe hemmed with purple: but
even this privilege was restricted to the children of those fathers who
had exercised a curule dignity; the sons of other patricians had merely
the prætexta, and it was necessary that even their fathers should have
served the prescribed time in the cavalry. ” (Macrobius, _Saturnalia_, I.
6. )
[14] “The plebeians were excluded from all offices, and put only to
agriculture, the breeding of cattle, and mercantile occupations. ”
(Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 9. )--“Numa encouraged the
agriculturists; they were excused from service in war, and discharged
from the care of municipal affairs. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II.
76. )
[15] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 9. --Plutarch, _Romulus_, 13.
[16] “Agrorum partes attribuerant tenuioribus. ” (Festus, under the word
_Patres_, p. 246, edit. O. Müller. )
[17] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 24.
[18] These questions have been the object of learned researches; but,
after an attentive perusal of the works of Beaufort, Niebuhr, Gœttling,
Duruy, Marquardt, Mommsen, Lange, &c. , the difference of opinions is
discouraging: we have adopted those which appeared most probable.
[19] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, V. 40. --Titus Livius, II. 16.
[20] Titus Livius, II. 48. --Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IX. 15.
[21] Titus Livius, II. 64.
[22] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, X. 15.
[23] “They called a _decree of the people_ (_scitum populi_) the measure
which the order of patricians had voted, on the proposal of a patrician,
without the participation of the plebs. ” (See Festus, under the words
_Scitum populi_, p. 330. )--Titus Livius, speaking of the tribunes, puts
the following words into the mouth of Appius Claudius: “Non enim
_populi_, sed _plebis_, eum magistratum esse. ” (Titus Livius, II. 56. )
[24] “The plebs was composed of all the mass of the people which was
neither senator nor patrician. ” (See Festus, under the words _Scitum
populi_. )
[25] “Populus autem non omnis hominum cœtus quoquo modo congregatus, sed
cœtus multitudinis juris consensu et utilitatis communione
sociatus. ”--(Cicero, _De Republica_, I. 25. )
[26] “Populus curiatis eum (Numam) comitiis regem esse jusserat. Tullum
Hostilium populus regem, interrege rogante, comitiis curiatis creavit.
Servius, Tarquinio sepulto, populum de se ipse consuluit jussusque
regnare legem de imperio suo curiatam tulit. ” (Cicero, _De Republica_,
II. 13-21. )
[27] “The predecessors of Servius Tullius brought all causes before
their tribunal, and pronounced judgment themselves in all disputes which
regarded the State or individuals. He separated these two things, and,
reserving to himself the cognizance of affairs which concerned the
State, abandoned to other judges the causes of individuals, with
injunctions, nevertheless, to regulate their judgments according to the
laws which he had passed. ” (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 25. )
[28] “The consuls, like the ancient kings, have twelve lictors carrying
axes and twelve lictors carrying rods. ” (Appian, _Syrian Wars_, 15. )
[29] “From that time Tarquinius Superbus carried, during the rest of his
life, a crown of gold, a toga of embroidered purple, and a sceptre of
ivory, and his throne was also of ivory; when he administered justice,
or walked abroad in the town, he was preceded by twelve lictors, who
carried axes surrounded with rods. (_Dionysius overlooks the twelve
other lictors who carried rods only. _) After the kings had been expelled
from Rome, the annual consuls continued to use all these insignia,
except the crown and the robe with purple embroidery. These two only
were withdrawn, because they were odious and disagreeable to the people.
But even these were not entirely abolished, since they still used
ornaments of gold and dress of embroidered purple, when, after a
victory, the Senate decreed them the honours of the triumph. ” (Dionysius
of Halicarnassus, III. 62. )
[30] “The soldiers of Romulus, to the number of three thousand, were
divided into three bodies, called ‘tribes. ’” (Dio Cassius, _Fragm. _,
XIV. , edit. Gros. --Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 7. --Plutarch,
_Romulus_, 25. )--“The name of tribune of the soldiers is derived from
the circumstance that the three tribes of the Ramnes, the Luceres, and
the Tatiens each sent three to the army. ” (Varro, _De Lingua Latina_, V.
§ 81, p. 32, edit. O. Müller. )
[31] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 35. Attempts have been made to
explain in different ways the origin of the word _curia_. Some have
derived it from the word _curare_, or from the name of the town of
_Cures_, or from κὑριος, “a lord:” it seems more natural to trace it to
_quiris_ (_curis_), which had the signification of a lance (Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, II. 48. --Plutarch, _Romulus_, for thus we obtain a term
analogous with that of the Middle Ages, where _spear_ signified a
_man-at-arms_, accompanied by six or eight armed followers. And as the
principal aim of the formation of the curia was to furnish a certain
number of armed citizens, it is possible that they may have given to the
whole the name of a part. We read in Ovid, _Fasti_, II. lines 477-480:--
“Sive quod hasta curis priscis est dicta Sabinis,
Bellicus a telo venit in astra deus:
Sive suo regi nomen posuere Quirites,
Seu quis Romanis junxerat ille Cures. ”
[32] Titus Livius, 1. 43.
[33] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II. 14, and IV. 20.
[34] “The appeal to the people existed even under the kings, as the
books of the pontiffs show. ” (Cicero, _De Republica_, II. 31. )
[35] Plutarch, _Numa_, 17. --Pliny, _Natural History_, XXXIV. 1.
[36] “Servius Tullius conformed no longer as aforetime to the ancient
order of three tribes, distinguished by _origin_, but to the four new
tribes which he had established by _quarters_. ” (Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, IV. 14. )
[37] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, III. 61. --Titus Livius, I. 35.
[38] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 22.
[39] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 19. “Servius Tullius, by these
means, threw back upon the richest all the costs and dangers of war. ”
(Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 20. )
[40] “If Numa was the legislator of the religious institutions,
posterity proclaims Servius as the founder of the order which
distinguishes in the Republic the difference of rank, dignity, and
fortune. It was he who established the _census_, the most salutary of
all institutions for a people destined to so much greatness. Fortunes,
and not individuals, were called upon to support the burdens of the
State. The _census_ established the classes, the centuries, and that
order which constitutes the ornament of Rome during peace and its
strength daring war. ” (Titus Livius, I. 42. )
[41] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 16.
[42] “When Servius Tullius had completed the taking of the census, he
ordered all the citizens to assemble in arms in the greatest of the
fields situated near the town, and, having arranged the horsemen in
squadrons, the footmen in phalanx, and the light-armed men in respective
orders, he submitted them to a lustration, by the immolation of a bull,
a ram, and a he-goat. He ordered that the victims should be led thrice
round about the army, after which he sacrificed to Mars, to whom this
field was dedicated. From that epoch to the present time the Romans have
continued to have the same ceremony performed, by the most holy of
magistracies, at the completion of each census; it is what they call a
_lustrum_. The total number of all the Romans enumerated, according to
the writing of the tables of the census, gave 300 men less than 85,000. ”
(Dionysius of Halicarnassus, IV. 22. )
[43] “This good order of government (under Servius Tullius) was
sustained among the Romans during several centuries, but in our days it
has been changed, and, by force of circumstances, has given place to a
more democratic system. It is not that the centuries have been
abolished, but the voters were no longer called together with the
ancient regularity, and their judgments have no longer the same equity,
as I have observed in my frequent attendance at the comitia. ” (Dionysius
of Halicarnassus, IV. 21. )
[44] “The poorest citizens, in spite of their great number, were the
last to give their vote, and made but one century. ” (Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, IV. 21. )
[45] Titus Livius, I. 43.
[46] “From the age of seventeen years, they were called to be soldiers.
Youth began with that age, and continued to the age of forty-six. At
that date old age began. ” (Aulus Gellius, X. 28. --Dionysius of
Halicarnassus, IV. 16. )
[47] Titus Livius speaks only of a hundred and ninety-two centuries;
Dionysius of Halicarnassus reckons a hundred and ninety-three. “In the
Roman plebs, the poorest citizens, those who reported to the census not
more than fifteen hundred _ases_, were called _proletarii_; those who
were not worth more than three hundred and seventy-five _ases_, and who
thus possessed hardly anything, were called _capite censi_. Now, the
fortune and patrimony of the citizen being for the State a sort of
guarantee, the pledge and foundation of his love for his country, the
men of the two last classes were only enrolled in case of extreme
danger. Yet the position of the _proletarii_ was a little more
honourable than that of the _capite censi_; in times of difficulty, when
there was want of young men, they were incorporated in the
hastily-formed militia, and equipped at the cost of the State; their
name contained no allusion to the mere poll-tax to which they were
subjected; less humiliating, it reminded one only of their destination
to give children to their country. The scantiness of their patrimony
preventing them from contributing to the aid of the State, they at least
contributed to the population of the city. ” (Aulus Gellius, XVI. 10. )
[48] “Tarquinius Priscus afterwards gave to the knights the organisation
which they have preserved to the present time. ” (Cicero, _De Republica_,
II. 20. )
[49] “It is said that the number of citizens inscribed under this title
was 80,000.
