The twelve Caesars

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JULIUS CAESAR 29 statutes oesy the most essentis, and publishing them in a sewvolumes. Still another was to provide public libraries, by comm4ssioning Marcus Varro to collect and classise Greek and Latin bookson a comprehensive scale. His engineering schemes included thedraining of the Pomptine Marshes and of Lahe Fucinus: also a high-way running from the Adriatic across the Apennines to the Tiber: and a canal to be cut through the Isthmus of Corinth. In the milita field he planned an expulsion of the Daciam stom Pontus and Thrace,

whicli they had recently occupied, and then an attach on Parthia byway of Lesser Armenia: but decided not to risk a pitched batile intilhe had familiari Zed himself with Parthian tacti cs. Ali these schemes were cancelled by his assassination. Besore describ-ing that, I should perhaps give a brief description of his appearance,

personat habita, dress, character, and conduci in peace and war. 43. Caesar is sald to have been tali, fair, and welLbussi. with arather broad face and keen, dark-brown eyes. His health was found apari seoni sudden comas and a tendency to nightmares which

His baldness was a disfigurement whicli his enei es harped upon, much to his exasperation: but he used to comb the thin strands of

Senate and People, notae pleased him so much as the privilege of wearing a lauret wreath on ali occasions - he constantly took advantage of it. His dress was, it seems, unusual: he had added wrist-length fleeves with fringes to his purple-striped senatorial tunic, and the belt whichhe wore over it was never tightly sestened - hence Sulla's warning to the aristocratic party: 'Beware of that boy with the loose clothesi' 6. Caesar's first home was a modest house in the Subura quarter, but later, as Chies Ponti' he used the ossiciat residence on the SacredWay. Contemporary literature contaris frequent reserences to his fontares for luxurious living. Having bulli a count mansion at Nervi frona the foundations up, one story go , he found so many seatures in it to disile that, although poor at the time and heavily indebi, he tore the whole place do . It is also recorded that he caresed tessellated and mosaic pavenients with him on his campaigiis.

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47. Fresh-water pearli λ seem to have been ine lure that prompted his invasion os Britain; he would somelimes weio stem in the palmos his hand to judge their value, and was also a keen collector of genas, carvings, statues, and Old Masters. So high were uae prices he paid forflaves of good character and altarimenta that he became ashamed of his extravagance and would not allow the sums to be intered in his

48. I find also that, while stationed abroad, he always had dimerserved in imo separate rooms: one for his officers and Greeh friends, the other for Roman citi gens and the more important provinciais. Hepaid such strict attention to his domestic economy, however smali thedeiail, that he once put his baher in irons for giring him a different sori of bread from that served to his guesis; and executed a favourite freedman sor committing adultery with a knight's wise, although no complaint had been lodged by the hviband.

49. The only specifc charge of natural practices ever brought against him was that he had been Ung Nicomedes's calamite - alwaysa dark stain on his reputation and frequently quoted by his enemies. Licinius Calvus published the notorious verses: The riches of Bithynia's Mng

o Caesar on his couch abused.

Dolabella called him 'the Queen's rival and inner parrier of the royalbed', and Curio the Elder: 'Nicomedes's Bithynian brothel'. Bibulus, Caesar's colleague in the consulfhip, described him in anedici as 'the Queen os Bithynia ... Who once wanted to fleep with a

monarch, but now wanis to be One'. And Marcus Brutus recordedinat, about the Same time, One Octavius, a Scattestresned creature w

and adds that certain Roman merclianis, whose names he supplies, were present as guesta. Cicero, too, not oesy wrote in seVerat letters: Caesar was led by Nicomedes's attendanis to the royal bedchamber, where he lay on a goiden couch, dressed in a purple stilit . . . So this descendant of Venus tost his virgini ty in Bithynia,

I. From a large musset; some were recently found in Leg of Muttoti Pondat Hampstead, London.

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JULIUS CAESAR 3Ibut also once interrupted Caesar while he was addressing the House in desince of Nicomedes's daughter Nysa and listing his obligationsto Nicomedes himself 'Enough of that,' Cicero fhouted, 'is youpleasel me ali know what he gave you, and what you gave him inreturn.' Lastly, when Caesar's own soldiers sollowed his decorated chariot in the Gallic triumph, chanting ribald songs, as they were privileged to do, this was one of them: Gaul was brought to shame by Caesar; By Mng Nicomedes, he.

Here comes Caesar, wreathed in triumphFor his Gallic victo lNicomedes wears no laureis, Though the greatest of the three. 5o. His affairs with women are commonly described as numerous

and extravagant: among those of noble birth whom he is sald to have seduced were Servius Sulpicius's wise Postumia: Aulus Gabinius'swise Lollia: Marcus Crassus's se Tertulla; and even Gnaeus Pompey's wise Mucia. Be this how it may, both Curio the Elder and Curio the Younger reproached Pompey for haring married Caesar'sdaughter Julia, when it was because of Caesar, whom he had ostendespat ingly called 'Aegisthus', that he divorced Mucia, mother of his three child ren. This Aegisthus had been the lover of Agamemnon's

wise ClytaemneStra. But Marcus Brutus's mollier Servilia was the woman whom Caesar

auctiori for a song. When surprhe was expressed at the low price, Cicero made a neat remark: 'It was even cheaper than you think,l because a third tertia) had been discounted.' Servilia, you see, was also suspected at the time of having prostituted her daughter Tertia to

i 3 I. That he had love-aHirs in the provinces, too, is suggested bymother of the ribald verses sing during the Gallic triumph:

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wise of Bogudes the Moor whom, according to Marcus Actorius Naso, he loaded with presenis: Bogudes is sald to have profited equassy. The most famous of these queens was Cleopatra of Egypt. He osten seasted with her untii dawn: and they would have sali edtogether in her state barge nearly to Ethiopia had his soldiers consented to follow him. He eventuatly summoned Cleopatra to Rome, and would not let her retum to Alexandria without high tities andrich presenis. He even allowed her to cali the son whom she had borneliam 'Caesarion'. Some Greeh historians say that the boy closelyresembled Caesar in features as weli as in gait. Mark Antony informedine Senate that Caesar had, in Act, achnowledged Caesarion's paternity, and that oster friends of Caesar's, including Gaius Matius and Gaius Oppius, were mare of this. Oppius, however, seems to have felt the need of clearing his friend's reputation: because he publisheda book to prove that the boy whom Cleopatra had Athered on Caesar Was not his at all. A tribune of the peopte named Helvius Cinna informed a numberos peopte that, following instructions, he had drawn up a bili for thecommons to pras during Caesar's absence from Rome, legitimigingliis martiage With any woman, or momen, he pleased - 'for the pr creation os children'. And to emphasiete the bad name Caesar had wonalike sor unnatural and natural vice, I may here record that the Fider Curio referred to him in a speech as: 'Εvery woman's hvsband ind

33. Vet not even his enemies dented that he drank abstemiously. An epigram os Marcus Cato's furvives: 'Caesar was the only sober man who ever tried to wrech the Constitution': and Gaius Oppius relates that he cared so litile for good od that when once he attendeda dimer party where rancid oti had been secved by mistake, and alithe other guesta refused ii, Caesar helped himself more liberalty than usus, to fhow that he did not consider his host either caretess orboorlah. 34. He was not particularly honest in money matters, et ther whilea provincial governor or while holding office at Rome. Severat memoirs record that as Governor-Generat of Western Spain he notonly begged his allies for money to setile his debis, but wantonlysacked severat Lusitanian towns, though they had accepted his ternis and opened their gales to wel come him.

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JULIUS CAESAR

In Gaul he ptundered large and smali temples of their votive offer-ings, and more osten gave towns over to pisage because their inhabitants were rich than because they had offended him. As a restat hecollected larger quantities of gold than he could handie, and beganselling it for silver, in Italy and the provinces, at 73o denarii to the

paid his Civit War army, and the expenses of his triumphs and entertainmenis, by open eXtortion and sacrilege. 33. Caesar equali ed, is he did not surpass, the greatest orators and generals the world had ever known. His prosecution os Dolabella unquestionably placed him in the first rank of advocates: and Cicero, discussing the matter in his Brutus, consessed that he taew no more eloquent spester than Caesar 'whose style is clitate, pellucid, and grand,

Caesar seems to have modessed his style, at any rate when a begimer, ora Caesar Strabo part of whose Defenceo the Sardinians he borrowed verbatim for use in a triat oration of his o . he was then competigwith other advocates for the right to plead a cause. It is said that hepitched his voice high in speiaing, and used impassioned gestureSwhich far fro in displeased his audience. Severat of Caesar's undoubted speeches s vive: and he is credited with others that may or may not have been his. Augustus said that the

'Defence of Quintus Metellus' could hardiu have been published by

Caesar himself, and that it appeared to be a version taken down byshorthand writers who could not keep up with his rapid desivery. Hewas probably right, because on examining severat manuscripis of the speech Ι sind that even the titte is givcn as 'A Speech Composed for Metellus' - although Caesar intended to deliver it in defence of Metellus and himself against a jorit accusation. Augustus also doubted the authenticity of Caesar's 'Address to my

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Soldiers in Spata'. It is written in two paris, one speech supposedlydelivered bes ore the first batile, the other be re the second - thoughon the lalter occasion, at least, according to Asinius Ρollio, theenemy's attach gave Caesar no time to address his troops at all. 56. He lese memoirs of his war in Gaul, and of his civit war against Pompey; but no one knows who wrote those of the Alexandrian,

African, and Spanisli campesgns. Some say that it was his friendoppius: others that it was Hirtius, who also finished 'The Gallic War', lese incomplete by Caesar, adding a final book. Cicero, also

in the Brutus, observes: 'Caesar wrote admirabiy; his memolas arecleanly, directly and gracelassy composed, and divested os ait rhetorical trappings. And while his sole intention was to supp* historians with factuat materis, the result has been that severat Mois have been pleased to primp up his narrative for their own glorification; butevery writer of sense has given the subject a wide berili.'Hirtius says downrightly: 'These memoirs are so Holy rated byali judicious critici that the opportunity of enlarging and improcingon them, which he purporis to offer historians, seems in fact withheldfrom them. And, as his friends, we admire this feat even more than strangers can: they appreciate the fauilless grace of his style, we knowhow rapidly and eastly he wrote.' Asinius Pollio, however, belleves that the memoirs show sims of caretessness and inaccuracy: Caesar, he holds, Id not always chechthe truth of the reporis that came in, and was either disingenuous ors orgetful in describing his own actions. Pollio adds that Caesar musthave planaaed a revision. Among his litera rematius are two books of An Euar on Analogy, o more of Ansiners to Cato, and a poem, The Durney. He wrote An

Enay on Analon while coming bach over the Alps after holdingassietes in Cisalpine Gaul: Ansiners to Cato in the year that he won thebatile of Munda: and The Durney during the twenty- ur days hespent on the road belween Rome and Western Spala. Many of the letters and despatches sent by him to the Senate also furvive, and he seems to have been the first statesman who reducedsuch documents to book form; previousU, Constas and governor- generals had written right across the page, not in neat columns. Thenthere are his letters to Cicero: and his private letters to friends, themore confidentiat passages of which he wrote in cypher: to under- stand their apparently incomprehensibie meaning one must number

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JULIUS CAESAR the letters of the alphabet froni I to 22, and then replace each of theletters that Caesar has used with the one whicli occurs four numbersiower - for instance, D stands sor A.

It is said that in his boyhood and early youth he also wrote pieces called In Prahe of Hercules and The Trageo of Oedipus and Collected Solam; but nearly a centu later the Emperor Augustus sent Pompeius Macer, his Surveyor of Libraries, a bries, frank letter sorbidding

ahead to announce his approach. 58. It is a disputabie potat which was the more remarhable whenhe went to war: his caution or bis daring. He never exposed his armyto ambushes, but made caresul reconnaissances; and refrained Domcrossing over into Britain intit he had collected reliable information from Gaius Volusenusὶ about the harbours there, the best course tosteer, and the navigationat risks. On the other hand, when news

outposts to tiae command on the spol.

I have tight hold of youl' Then, to ridicule the prophecy according

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to whicli it was Hie Scipios' fate to be perpetuatly victorious in Africa, he took about with him a contemptibie member of the Cornelian branch of the Scipio family nictaamed 'Salvito' - or 'Greetingst butosf with himi' the 'Greetingst' being an acknowledgement of his

distinguished birili, the 'Osf with himi' a condemnation of his disgusting habiis.

6 I. This Charger of his, an extraordinary animal with feet thallooked almost human - each of iis hoose was cloven in five paris, resembling human toes - had been aled on his private estate. Whenthe soothsayers pronounced that ita master would one day rule theworid, Caesar carefalty reared, and was the first to ride, the betat; nor would it allow anyone et se to do so. Eventuatly he ressed a statueto it be re the Temple of Mother Venus. 62. Is Caesar's troops gave ground he would osten ralty them in person, calching individual fugitives by the throat and forcing themround to face the enemy again: even is they were pani strichen - aswhen one standar&bearer threatened his with the sharp buit of his

Eagle and another, whom he tried to delata, ran offleaving the Εaglein his hand. 63. Caesar's reputation sor presence of miud is fully borne out by the instances quoted. Aster Pharsalus, he had sent his legions inead of

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IULIUS CAESAR

or sociat position, treat g them ait Mili equat severi - and equalindulgence: since it was only in the presence of the enemy that he insisted on strici discipline. He never gave forewarning of a marchor a batile, but hept his troops always on the alert for sudden ordersio go whereuer he directed. Osten he made them turn out when there Was no need at all, especialty in wet weather or on public holidays. Sometimes he would say: 'Κeep a close eye on mel' and then stea laway from camp at any hour of tiae day or night, expecting them tofollow. It was certain to be a particularly long march, and hard on

deserter or muti neer to escape severe punishment. Sometimes, is a

Comrades ...', whicli put them into a better humour: and he

both improved their appearance on parade and made them more

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THE T ELVE CAESAR S

caresul not to get disarmed in batile, these being objects of great valve. Caesar loved his men dearly; when news came that Titurius's command had been massacred, he swore netiner to cui his hair nor totrim his beard untii they had been avenged. 68. By these means he won ine devotion of his army as weli asmahing it extraordinari ly gallant. At the ovibreali of the Civit Warfrom his savings; and the private soldiers unanimousty offered toserve under him without pay or rations, pooling their money so that nobody should go fhori. Throughout the entire struggle not a single Caesarean deserted, and many of them, When taen prisoners, proferred death to the alternative of serving with tiae Pompeians. Suchwas their fortitude in facing starvation and other hardships, both asbesiegers and as besieged, that when Pompey was shown at Dyrrhachium the substitute for bread, made of grass, on whicli they weres eding, he exclaimed: 'Ι - fght g wild beastsi' Then he ordered the losi to be hidden at once, not wanting his men to find out howtough and resolute the enemy were, and so lose heart. Here the Caesareans suffered their sole reverse, but proved their stou heartetaess by begging to be punished for the lapse: whereuponite feli called Mon to console rather than upbraid them. In otherbatiles, they beat enormousty superior forces. Shortly be re thedes eat at Dyrrhachium, a single company of the Scith Legion helda redoubi against four Pompeian legions, though almost every man

collected on the scene of the engagement. This high levet os courageis tess surprising when individual examples are considered: for thecenturion Cassius Scaeva, blinded in one eye, wounded in thigh and shoulder, and with no less than Iao holes in his sitield, continued todefend the approaches to the redocti. Nor was his by any means aneXceptionat case. At the navat batile of Marseilles, a private soldiernamed Gaius Acilius grasped the stem os an enemy ship and, Whensomeone topped off his right hand, neverthel ess boarded her and sdrove the enemy bach with the boss of his sitield only - a stat rivallingillat of the Athenian Cynaegeirus brother of the poet Aeschylus),who fhowed similar courage when maimed in trying to delain aΡersian ship after the Victo at Marathon. 69. Caesar's men did not mutiny once during the Gallic War, wh1ch lasted thirteen years. In the Civit Wars they were less depend-