Civil Wars

Having spoken thus,, he gathered up his garments like one inspired, girded himself so that he might have the free use of his hands, took his position in front of the bier as in a play, bending down to it and rising again, and sang first as to a celestial deity. In order to testify to Cæsar's godlike origin, he raised his hands to heaven and with rapid speech recited his wars, his battles, his victories, the nations he had brought under his country's sway, and the spoils he had sent home, extolling each exploit as miraculous, and all the time exclaiming, "Thou alone hast come forth unvanquished from all the battles thou hast fought. Thou alone hast avenged thy country of the out-rage put upon it 300 years ago, bringing to their knees those savage tribes, the only ones that ever broke into and burned the city of Rome." Many other things Antony said in a kind of divine frenzy, and then lowered his voice from its high pitch to a sorrowful tone, and mourned and wept as for a friend who had suffered unjustly, and prayed that his own life might be given in exchange for Cæsar's. Carried away by extreme passion he uncovered the body of Cæsar, lifted his robe on the point of a spear and shook it aloft, pierced with dagger-thrusts and red with the dictator's blood. Whereupon the people, like a chorus, mourned with him in the most lugubrious manner, and from sorrow became again filled with anger. After the discourse other lamentations were chanted with funeral music according to the national custom, by the people in chorus, to the dead; and his deeds and his sad fate were again recited. Somewhere from the midst of these lamentations Cæsar himself was supposed to speak, recounting the benefits he had conferred on his enemies by name, and speaking of the murderers themselves, exclaiming, as it were, " Oh that I should have spared these men to slay me!"[*](A quotation from the Latin poet Pacuvius. The original is given in Suetonius: " Men' servasse, ut essent qui me perderent!") The people could endure it no longer. It seemed to them monstrous that all the murderers who, with the single exception of Decimus Brutus, had been made prisoners while belonging to the faction of Pompey, and who, instead of being punished, had been advanced by Cæsar to the magistracies of Rome and to the command of provinces and armies, should have conspired against him; and that Decimus should have been deemed by him worthy of adoption as his son.

While they were in this temper and were already near to violence, somebody raised above the bier an image of Cæsar himself made of wax.[*](Waxen images of the deceased were common in the funerals of distinguished persons in Rome.) The body itself, as it lay on its back on the couch, could not be seen. The image was turned round and round by a mechanical device, showing the twenty-three wounds in all parts of the body and on the face, which gave him a shocking appearance. The people could no longer bear the pitiful sight presented to them. They groaned, and, girding themselves, they burned the senate-chamber where Cæsar was slain, and ran hither and thither searching for the murderers, who had fled some time previously. They were so mad with rage and grief that like wild beasts they tore in pieces the tribune Cinna on account of his similarity of name to the praetor Cinna who had made a speech against Cæsar, not waiting to hear any explanation about the simhilarity of name, so that no part of him was ever found for burial.[*](Suetonius (Jul. 85) and Valerius Maximus (ix. 9) agreed with Appian that this victim of error was the tribune Cinna, whose surname was Helvius. Plutarch says that he was a poet, or rather a man of a poetical turn.) They carried fire to the houses of the other murderers, but the domestics valiantly fought them off and the neighbors besought them to desist. So the people abstained from the use of fire, but they threatened to come back with arms on the following day.[*](Merivale (Hist. of the Romans under the Empire, ii. 84) considers this report of Antony's funeral oration " no rhetorical fiction, but a fair representation both in manner and substance of the actual harangue." Cicero bore testimony to the effectiveness of Antony's discourse when he spoke of it in the second Philippic (36) as " that beautiful encomium, that mournful dirge, that appeal to passion," adding: "thou, thou I say, didst light the fire that half consumed his body and burned down the house of L. Bellienus. Thou didst precipitate upon our homes that mob of abandoned men, mostly slaves, whom we drove back by force and violence.")

The murderers fled from the city secretly. The people returned to Cæsar's bier and bore it as a consecrated thing to the Capitol in order to bury it in the temple and place it among the gods. Being prevented from doing so by the priests, they placed it again in the forum where in the olden time stood the palace of the kings of Rome. There they collected together sticks of wood and benches, of which there were many in the forum, and anything else they could find of that sort, for a funeral pile, throwing on it the adornments of the procession, some of which were very costly. Some of them cast their own crowns upon it and many military gifts. Then they set fire to it, and the entire people remained by the funeral pile throughout the night. There an altar was first erected,[*](Suetonius gives a similar account of Cæsar's funeral, and adds: "They afterward placed in the forum a solid column of Numidian marble nearly twenty feet high and inscribed on it the words ' To the Father of his Country,' at which they continued for a long time to offer sacrifice, to take vows, and to adjust controversies in which the oath was taken in the name of Cæsar." (Jul. 85.) This column was demolished by the consul Dolabella, who flung over the Tarpeian rock the free persons who participated in these ceremonies, crucified the slaves, and caused the ground to be repaved. This must have taken place shortly before the first of May, as Cicero, then at Puteoli, wrote a letter to Atticus on that day in which he mentioned it as news just received by him. "Oh, my admirable Dolabella," he says, " I now call him mine, for believe me, I had some little doubt of him before. The affair presents a great outlook. Over the rock! On the cross! The column demolished, the place itself under contract to be paved. Is it not heroic? He seems to me to have put an end to that appearance of regret for Cæsar which was hitherto spreading from day to day, and becoming chronic, so that I feared lest it should prove dangerous to our tyrant-killers." (Ad Att. xiv. 15.)) but now there stands the temple of Cæsar himself, as he was deemed worthy of divine honors; for Octavius, his son by adoption, who took the name of Cæsar, and, following in the footsteps of the latter in political matters, greatly strengthened the government founded by Cæsar, and which remains to this day, decreed divine honors to his father. From this example the Romans now pay like honors to each emperor at his death if he has not reigned in a tyrannical manner or made himself odious, although at first they could not bear to call them kings while living.

So died Gaius Cæsar on the so-called Ides of March, which correspond nearly with the middle of the Greek month Anthesterion, which day the soothsayer predicted that he should not survive. Cæsar jokingly said to him early in the morning, "Well, the Ides have come," and the latter, nothing daunted, answered, "But they are not past." Despising such prophecies, uttered with so much confidence by the soothsayer, and other prodigies that I have previously mentioned, Cæsar went on his way and was killed, being fifty-six years of age.[*](Mommsen maintains, contrary to the testimony of Suetonius, Plutarch, and Appian, that Cæsar was fifty-eight instead of fifty-six years old at the time of his death. He reasons that Cæsar must have been born as early as the year 652 in order to hold the offices of ædile, prætor, and consul at the time when he was first elected to them, supposing that he was elected to each as early as he could be legally. Although the age limit was relaxed in special cases, we find no mention of exception in favor of Cæsar, and it is hardly possible that three exceptions could have been made in favor of so illustrious a man without any mention of it occurring in ancient writings. There are other facts which tend to corroborate Mommsen's view, which is now generally accepted by scholars.) He was a man most fortunate in all things, superhuman, of grand designs, and fit to be compared with Alexander. Both were men of the greatest ambition, both were most skilled in the art of war, most rapid in executing their decisions, most reckless of danger, least sparing of themselves, and relying as much on audacity and luck as on military skill. Alexander made a long journey through the desert in the hot season to visit the oracle of Ammon and crossed the Gulf of Pamphylia against a head sea successfully. A god restrained the waves for him until he had passed over, and sent him rain on his journey by land. In India he ventured upon an unknown sea. Once he was the first to ascend the scaling ladders and leaped over the wall among his enemies alone, and in this condition received thirteen wounds. Yet he was never defeated, and he finished almost every war in one or two battles. He conquered many barbarians in Europe and made himself master of Greece, a people hard to control, fond of freedom, who boasted that they had never obeyed anybody before him, except Philip for a little while under the guise of his leadership in war. He overran almost the whole of Asia. To sum up Alexander's fortune and power in a word, he acquired as much of the earth as he saw, and died while he was devising means to capture the rest.

The Adriatic Sea yielded to Cæsar, becoming navigable and quiet in mid-winter. He also crossed the western ocean to Britain, which had never been attempted before, and he ordered his pilots to break their ships in pieces by running them on the rocks of the British coast.[*](This is nonsense. Cæsar himself says (Gallic War, v. 10) that while he was advancing into the interior of Britain, word was brought to him that a great storm had arisen in the night and dashed almost all of his ships in pieces on the shore, so that he was obliged to abandon his expedition temporarily.) He was exposed to the violence of another tempest when alone in a small boat by night, and he ordered the pilot to spread his sails and to keep in mind Cæsar's fortune rather than the waves of the sea. He often dashed against the enemy single-handed when all others were afraid. He fought thirty pitched battles in Gaul alone, where he conquered forty nations so formidable to the Romans previously that in the law which exempted priests and old men from military enrolment an exception was made of a Gallic war, in case of which priests and old men were required to serve in the army. Once in the course of the Alexandrian war, when he was left alone on a bridge in extreme peril, he threw off his purple garment, leaped into the sea, and, being sought by the enemy, swam under water a long distance, coming to the surface only at intervals to take breath, until he came near a friendly ship, when he made himself known by raising his hands, and was saved. In these civil wars, in which he engaged either through apprehension, as he says, or ambition, he was brought in conflict with the first generals of the age and with many large armies, not now of barbarians, but of Romans in the highest state of efficiency and good fortune, and, like Alexander, he overcame them all by one or two engagements with each. His forces were not, like Alexander's, always victorious, for they were defeated by the Gauls most disastrously under the command of his lieutenants, Cotta and Titurius; and in Spain Petreius and Afranius shut them up like an army besieged. At Dyrrachium and in Africa they were put to flight, and in Spain they were terrified by young Pompey. But Cæsar himself was always undaunted and was victorious at the end of every war. He grasped, partly by force, partly by good-will, the Roman power which ruled the earth and sea from the setting sun to the river Euphrates, and held it much more firmly and strongly than Sulla had done, and he showed himself to be a king in spite of opposition, even though he did not accept the title. And, like Alexander, he expired while planning new wars.

Their armies were equally zealous and devoted to both, and in battles they fought with the greatest ferocity, but were often disobedient and mutinous on account of the severity of their tasks. Yet they mourned and longed for their commanders when they were dead, and paid them divine honors. Both were well-formed and handsome in person, and both were descended from Jupiter, Alexander through Æacus and Hercules, Cæsar through Anchises and Venus. Both were as prompt to fight their adversaries as they were ready to make peace and grant pardon to the vanquished, and after pardon to confer benefits; for they desired only to conquer. Thus far let the parallel hold good, although they did not both start toward empire from the same footing; Alexander from the monarchy founded by Philip, Cæsar from a private station, well born and illustrious indeed, but very short of money.

Both of them despised the prodigies relating to themselves, but they did not deal harshly with the sooth-sayers who predicted their death; for more than once the very same prodigies confronted both, pointing to the same end. Twice in the case of each the victims were without a liver, and the first time it indicated a doubtful danger. It happened to Alexander when he was among the Oxydracæ and while he was leading his Macedonians in scaling the enemy's wall. The ladder broke, leaving him alone on the top. Taking counsel of his courage, he leaped inside the town against his enemies, and was struck severely in the breast and on the neck by a very heavy club, so that he fell down, and was rescued with difficulty by the Macedonians, who broke down the gates in their alarm for him. It happened to Cæsar in Spain while his army was in great fear of young Pompey, and hesitated to join battle. Cæsar dashed in advance of all into the space between the armies, and received 200 darts on his shield until his army, moved by shame and fear for his safety, rushed forward and rescued him. Thus in the case of each the first victims without livers presaged danger of death; the second presaged death itself. As Peithagoras, the soothsayer, was inspecting the entrails, he told Apollodorus, who was in fear of Alexander and Hephestion, not to be afraid of them, because they would both be out of the way very soon. Hephestion died immediately, and Apollodorus, being apprehensive lest some conspiracy might exist against Alexander, communicated the prophecy to him. Alexander smiled, and asked Peithagoras himself what the prodigy meant. When the latter replied that it meant fatality, he smiled again. Nevertheless, he commended Apollodorus for his good-will and the soothsayer for his freedom of speech.

As Cæsar was entering the Senate for the last time, as I have shortly before related, the same omens were observed, but he said, jestingly, that the same thing had happened to him in Spain. When the soothsayer replied that he was in danger then too, and that the omen was now more deadly, he yielded somewhat to the warning and sacrificed again, and continued to do so until he became vexed with the priests for delaying him, and went in and was killed. The same kind of thing happened to Alexander. As he was returning from India to Babylon with his army, and was nearing the latter place, the Chaldeans urged him to postpone his entrance for the present. He replied with the iambic verse, "He who guesses right is the best prophet."[*](This is a line from Euripides, which had passed into a proverb in both Greek and Latin. Schweighäuser cites several authors who used it -- among them Arrian (Expeditio Alex. vii. 16), who also gives us a more detailed account of this affair of Alexander and the Chaldeans.) Again, the Chaldeans urged him not to march his army into the city while looking toward the setting sun, but to go around and enter facing the east. It is said that he yielded to this suggestion and started to go around, but being bothered by a lake and marshy ground, he disregarded this second prophecy also, and entered the city looking toward the west. Not long after entering he went down the Euphrates in a boat to the river Pallacotta, which takes its water from the Euphrates and carries it away in marshes and ponds and thus hinders the irrigation and navigation of the Assyrian country. While he was considering how he should dyke this stream and while he was sailing out to it for this purpose, it is said that he jeered at the Chaldeans because he had gone into Babylon and sailed out of it safely. But scarcely had he returned back to it when he died. Cæsar jeered at the prophecies in like manner, for the soothsayer predicted the day of his death, saying that he should not survive the Ides of March, and when the day came Cæsar mocked him saying, "The Ides have come "; and the same day he died. Thus both alike made light of the prophecies concerning themselves, and were not angry at the soothsayers who uttered them, yet they became the inevitable victims of the prophecies.

Both were students of the science and arts[*](e)pisth/mhn th=s a)reth=s: literally, " the science of excellence," which is by no means clear. Nauck marks the last word doubtful.) of their own country, of Greece, and of foreign nations. As to those of India, Alexander interrogated the Brahmins who seem to be the astronomers and learned men of that country, like the Magi among the Persians. Cæsar likewise interrogated the Egyptians while he was there restoring Cleopatra to the throne, by which means he made many improvements among the peaceful arts for the Romans. He changed the calendar, which was still in disorder by reason of the intercalary months till then in use, for the Romans reckoned the year by the moon. Cæsar changed it to the sun's course, as the Egyptians reckoned it.[*](Cæsar also, at this time, changed the beginning of the year from the first of March to the first of January, because the latter was the date for changing the supreme magistrates. "Both changes came into effect on the first January 709 of the city (45 B.C.), and along with them the use of the Julian Calendar, so named after its author, which, long after the fall of the monarchy of Cæsar, remained the regulative standard of the civilized world, and in the main is so still." (Mommsen.)) It happened in his case that not one of the conspirators against him escaped, but all were brought to condign punishment by his adopted son, just as the murderers of Philip were by Alexander. How they were punished the succeeding books will show.

The Senate blamed Antony for his funeral oration over Cæsar, by which, chiefly, the people were incited to disregard the decree of amnesty lately passed, and to scour the city in order to fire the houses of the murderers. But he changed it from bad to good feeling toward himself by one capital stroke of policy. There was a certain pseudo-Marius in Rome named Amatius. He pretended to be a grandson of Marius, and for this reason was popular with the masses. Being, according to this pretence, a relative of Cæsar, he was pained beyond measure by the latter's death, and erected an altar on the site of his funeral pyre. He collected a band of reckless men and made himself a perpetual terror to the murderers. Some of these had fled from the city, and those who had accepted the command of provinces from Cæsar himself had gone away to take charge of the same, Decimus Brutus to Cisalpine Gaul, Trebonius to Asia adjoining Ionia, and Tillius Cimber to Bithynia. Cassius and Marcus Brutus, who were the special favorites of the Senate, had been chosen by Cæsar as governors for the following year, the former of Syria, and the latter of Macedonia. Being still city prætors, they remained there necessarily, and in their official capacity they conciliated the colonists by various decrees, and among others by one enabling them to sell their allotments, the law hitherto forbidding the alienation of the land till the end of twenty years.