The lives of the first twelve Cæsars

발행: 1796년

분량: 639페이지

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JULIUS CAESAR. 47be re him : sor they are distinguished into pages in me

forin os a pochet-book; whereas the Consuls and Generias, tili then, used constantly in their letters to continue theline quite acrost the smeet, without any solding or distinction os pages. There are extant lihewise some letters froni him to Cicero, and others to his friends Concerning his domestic assairs: in whicli, is there Was occasion forsecresst, he used the alphabet in lach a manner, that not asingle word could be made oui. The way to decipiter those episties was to substitute d fori and so of the other letters respectively. Some things likewise pasi under his name, said to have been written by him when aboy, Or a very young man ; as the Encomtum os He

cules, a tragedy entilled indipus, and a collection ofApophthegnas; alt whicli Augustus forbid to be publimed, in a mori and plain letter to Pompeius Macer, 'whom he had appotnted to direct me arrangement of

his librariCS. LVII. He was a perfect master of his mea pons, a complete horseman, and able to en iure fatigue beyond ali belles. Upon a march, he used io go at the head of his troops, s metimes on horsebach, but os tener on Dot, with his head bare in ali Linds of wea ther. He would travel in a post-chaise at the rate of a hundred miles a day,

and pase rivers in his may by s imming, or supported with lea therii bags silled with wind, so that he osten prevented ali intelligence of his approach. LVIII. In his expeditions, it is dissiculi to say whether his caution or boldnesse vias most Conspicuous. He ne-

the siluation οἱ the places by his scouis. Nor did he pass

o Ver

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over into Britain, besore he had made due enquiry rea specting the navigation, the harbours, and the most con venient accesse to the istand. But when advice was broughtto him of the siege of a Camp of his in Germany, hemade his wav to his men, through the enem y's guards, in a Gallic habit. He crossed the sea from Brundisium and Dyrrachium, in the winter, through the naidst of theenem y's fleeis; and the troops which he had ordered tofollow him not making that haste which he eXpe Red, after he had severat times sent messeragers to expedite them, in vain, he at last went privately, and alone, aboard a a sinali vesiel in the night time, with his head mussieti up :nor did he discover who he was, or suster the master todesis frona prosecuting the voyage, though the wind ble strong against them, untii they avere ready to sinE. LIX. He was never disco uraged stom any enterpri se, nor letarded in the prosecution of it, by any ill omens. When a victim which he was abo ut to offer in sacrifice, had made iis escape, he did not therei ore defer his ex

dicule os the prophecies which were spread abroad, as is the nam e of the Scipio's was, by the decrees of fate, fortunate and invincibie in that province, he reta ined in the Camp a profligate wretch, of the fami ly of the Cornelii, who, on account of his scandalous lisse, vias surnained Salutio. LX. He engaged in batile not only upon ppevious de liberation, but upon the sutaen vhen an occasion presented iis eis; osten immediately after a march, and s me

times during the most disinat wea ther, When nobody could imagine

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JULIUS CAESAR.

ficers' hors es, and in the fit si place his own, that being depfived of that convenience for figlit, they might be under the greater necessity of standing their ground . LXI. He rode a very rem arkable horse, mith seet a most like those of a man, his hoosse being divided in such amanner as to have so me resemblance to toes. This hors

he had bred himself, and took particular care os, beCausethe othsayers interpreted thos e circumstances into anomen, that me possessor of him would be master of the worid. He backed him too himself, for the horse would suffer no other rider ; and he after artis erected a statue of him hesore the temple of Venus GenitriX.

LXII. He osten alone, by his coiirage and adtivity, res ored the fortune os a batile ; opposing and stopping suci, of his tro ops as fled, and turning them by the j a s uponthe enem y ; though many of them were so terrified, thata standard-bearer, upon his stopping him, made a passe athim ; and another, upon a similar occasion, test his stand-ard in his harad. LXIII. The solio vin I instances of his resolution areequat ly, and even more remari able. Aster the batile oty Pharsalia,

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Pharsalia, having sent his tro ops besere him into Asia, ashe vras passing the Hellespont in a feri y-boat, he met with L. Cassius, one of the opposite party, with ten ships of war; whom he was so far frona avoiding, that he advan-ced close up to him; when, advising him to surrender, and the other complying, he took him into the boat.

LXV. He ne ver est ima ted a soldier by his mannersor fortune, but by his strength alone ; and trea ted themmitti equat severity and indulgence ; sor he did not always

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armed mor, and three hundred elephanis. Let notae there- fore presume to mahe any farther enquiry, or to give their

nor proportioned his punishments to the nature of them. But after deserters and mulineers he made themost diligent enquiry, and punished them severelyrother delinquenis he would Connive .at. Sometime S, after a successs ut batile, he would grant them a relaXation froni ali hinds of duty, and leave them to revel at

them in lacti fine condition, that their armS Were ornamented mith s1lver and gold, not only for the purpo se of mahing the better appearance, but to render the soldiei smore tenacious of them in batile, from their value. Heloved his tro ops to such a degree, saat when he heard of the ditaster of those under Titurius, he netther Cut his hair not si aved his bearii, uniit he had revelage i it u ponthe enem y ; by whicli means he engaged eκtremely their affection, and rendered illem to the tali degree brave.

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LXVIII. Upon his entering into the civit War, thecenturions os every legion offered, each of them to maintain a hors eman at his own eXpence, and the whole ar-my agreed to serve gratis, without Cither corn or pay ;those amongst them who were ricli charging theniselves With the mainten ance of the poor. No one of them, during the whole course of the war, Went over to theenem y ; and most of thos e who were made prisoners, though they were offered their lives, Upon the conditionos bearing arnas against him, refused to accepi the term S.

sion of the hardinesse and desperate resolution of the ene-my. With what bravery they fought, one instance a D rils lassicient proos; v hicli is, that aster an Unsuccess-ful engagement at Dyrrachium, they destred him to puni lii them ; in much that their generat found it more necessary to com fori than punissa them. In othe rbatiles, in different paris, they des eated with case immenso armies of the enem y, though they were much inferior tothem in number. To conclude, one battalion of thes1Yth legion held out a fori againsh four legions belong- ing to Pompey, during severat hours ; being almost everyone of them Wo unded, by the vast number of arrows disia charged against them, and of whicli there urere found with in the ram paris a hundred and thii ty thousand. Thisis no way surprii g, when we consider the bellaviouros sonae individustis am0ngst them; such as that of Case

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IULIUS CAESAR.

sius scaeva, or C. Acilius a Common soldier. Scaeva, aiater he had an eye struck oui, was ruta through the thighand the si1oulder, and had his silicid pierced in a hundred and twenty places, maintained obstinately tiae guai dos a gate in a fori, with the command of which he wasenti usted. Acilius, in the sea-tight at Marseilles, hau ingstiged a s hip of the enemy with his right harid, and that being cui off, in imitation of that memorabie instance of resolution in Cynaegirus amongsst the Greelis, leaped in-

years of the Gallic war, but were so metimes a litile refractory in the coui se of the civit war. They at ways however returned quichly to their duty, and that not throughthe Compli ance, but the authority of their generat: forheineVer gave ground , but constantly opposed them onsuch occasions. The whole ninth legion he disinissed with ignomi ny at Placentia, though Pompey was at that time in arms ; and would not receive them again into his service, uiatii not only they had made the most hum-ble submission and enti ea ty, hut that the ringlea lers in themuti ny were punimed. LXX. When the soldiers of the tentii legion at Romedem aniled their discliarge, and rewariis for their service, mitti great threais, and no sinali danger to the city, thoughat that time the war was warmly carried on against hi min Africa , he immediately, notwith standing ali the efforis of his frientis, who endeavore t to prevent him fi Omtaking such a mea iure, came up to the legion, and dis baia ted it. Lut addressing them by the titie of Quiri

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thoroughly regained their assections, that they immediate-ly cried o ut, they were his soldiers,V and followed hi minio Africa, though he had refuted their service . Heneverthelesi punis laed the most seditious amongst them, missi the losi os a third of their 1liare in the ptunder, and the land which had been intended for them.

LXXI. In the service of his clients, while yet a youngman, he evinced great eteal and fidelity. 'He defended the cause of a nobie youth, Masintha, against hing Hiempsal, se strenuously, that in a Wrangle which happenedupon the occasion, he seiZed by the beard the sola of hingJuba ; and upon Masintha being declared tributary to Hiempsal, while the frientis of the adverse party were violently carrying him olf, he immediately rescued him by force, hept him concealed in his house a long time, and when, at me expiration of his Praetors hip, he wentio Spatia, he cari ted him with him in his litter, amidsthis se eanis, and others who had come to attend and takoleave of him LXXII. He always trea ted his si leniis with that good nature and hindness, that when C. Oppius, in travellingwith hi in through a forest, v as suddenly taken iit, heresigned to him the only place there was to lodge in alnight, and lay himself upon the ground , and in the opera a tr. When he had come to have in his own hands thewhole power of the commonwealth, he advanced sonae of his sa illi fui adherenis, though of mean eXtraction, tothe highes: posts in the govertament. And when he was Censured for this partiality, he openly said, Had I been assisted by robbers and cut-throats in the defence of myhonor, I should have made them the fame recompense.

LXXIII. He

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IULIUS C ESAR.

LXXIII. He never in any quai rei conccived so im placabie a re sentinent, as not Very willingly to renouncei when an opportunity occurred. Though C. Memmitis had publimed sente extrem ely virulent speeches againsthim, and he had an ered hi in with equat acrimony, yethe aster artis assis sed him with his vote and interest, whenhe stood candidate for the Consul ship. When C. Calvus, after publisti ing sonae scandalotis epigrams againsthim, en leavored to effecto a reconciliation by the inter cesi1on os friends, he wrote of his own accord the fit stle iter. And when Valerius Catullus, who had, as hehimself obsersed, in his verses iapon Mamurra, put sucha stain upon his character as never Could be obliterated, begged his pardon, he invited him to stipper the samoday; and continued to talie up his lodging with his fa- ther occasionalty, as he had been accusto med to do LXXIV. His disposition was naturalty averse to seVeri ty in retallation. Aster he had made the pirates, by whom he had been taken, prisoners, because he had Moria

to the eXecution Os that sentence, ordei ed their throatsto be Cut. He could never bear the thought of doing any harm to Cornelius Phagitas, who had trepanned him in ille nighi, with the desigia os cari ying him to Sylla : and from v hos e custody, not without much dissiculty and alaroe brihe lihewise , he had been alde to extrica te hinn-self. Ρhilemon, his secretary, who h ad made a promiseto his enemies to pol n him, he put to death only, Muth Out torture. When he was summoned as a vii inessagainst P. Clodius, his vitia Pompeia's gallant, WhO WASprosecuted for a pollution os religious ceremontes, he de- declared he knew nothing of the aifair, though his mo-ther Aurelia, and his sister Iulia, gave the couri an exact

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pey'S recommendation, gi ven any command in the army,

pleased. When some propos als were made at Ilerda fora surrender, Whicli gave rise to a free Communication be-- tween the two Camps, and Afranius and Ρetreius, upon aladden change of resolution, had put to the Mord ali Caesar's meri that were found in the camp, he scoria edio imitate the base treachery whicli they had practis edaga in f himself. In the field os Pharsalia, he called out

to the soldiers to spare their fellow-citigens, V and after-wards gave liberty to every man in his arua y to save anziae my. None of them, so far as appe ars, tost their lives but in batile, eXcepting only Afranius, Faustias, and yo ungLucius Caesar ; and it is thought that even they were putio death without his consent. Afranius and Faustus h ad borne arnas against him, after their pard00 had been granted them ; and L. Caesar had not only in the most cruei manner destroyed w th fire and sword his freedmen and flaves, but cui to pieces the wild beas s which he ii ad prepared for the entertainnient of the people. An d finalty,

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