[234] For the character of Cæsar generally I would refer readers to Suetonius, whose life of the great man is, to my thinking, more graphic than any that has been written since. For his anecdotes there is little or no evidence. His facts are not all historical. His knowledge was very much less accurate than that of modern writers who have had the benefit of research and comparison. But there was enough of history, of biography, and of tradition to enable him to form a true idea of the man. He himself as a narrator was neither specially friendly nor specially hostile. He has told what was believed at the time, and he has drawn a character that agrees perfectly with all that we have learned since.
[235] By no one has the character and object of the Triumvirate been so well described as by Lucan, who, bombastic as he is, still manages to bring home to the reader the ideas as to persons and events which he wishes to convey. I have ventured to give in an Appendix, E, the passages referred to, with such a translation in prose as I have been able to produce. It will be found at the end of this volume.
[236] Plutarch—Crassus: καὶ συνέστησεν ἐκ τῶν τριῶν ἰσχὺν ἄμαχον.
[237] Velleius Paterculus, lib. ii., 44: "Hoc igitur consule, inter eum et Cn. Pompeium et M. Crassum inita potentiæ societas, quæ urbi orbique terrarum, nec minus diverso quoque tempore ipsis exitiabilis fuit." Suetonius, Julius Cæsar, xix., "Societatem cum utroque iniit." Officers called Triumviri were quite common, as were Quinqueviri and Decemviri. Livy speaks of a "Triumviratus"—or rather two such offices exercised by one man—ix., 46. We remember, too, that wretch whom Horace gibbeted, Epod. iv.: "Sectus flagellis hic triumviralibus." But the word, though in common use, was not applied to this conspiracy.
[238] Ad Att., lib.ii., 3: "Is affirmabat, illum omnibus in rebus meo et Pompeii consilio usurum, daturumque operam, ut cum Pompeio Crassum conjungeret. Hic sunt hæc. Conjunctio mihi summa cum Pompeio; si placet etiam cum Cæsare; reditus in gratiam cum inimicis, pax cum multitudine; senectulis otium. Sed me κατακλείς mea illa commovet, quæ est in libro iii.
"Interea cursus, quos prima a parte juventæ Quosque adeo consul virtute, animoque petisti, Hos retine, atque, auge famam laudesque bonorum."
[239] Homer, Iliad, lib. xii., 243: Εἶς οἰωνὸς ἄριστος ἀμύνεσθαι περὶ πάτραες.
[240] Middleton's Life of Cicero, vol. i., p. 291.
[241] Pro Domo Sua, xvi. This was an oration, as the reader will soon learn more at length, in which the orator pleaded for the restoration of his town mansion after his return from exile. It has, however, been doubted whether the speech as we have it was ever made by Cicero.
[242] Suetonius, Julius Cæsar, xx.