[-21-] Caesar, when this continued to happen, fell into desperate straits: none of his allies rendered him assistance, for his opponents met and annihilated[69] them as fast as they heard that each one was approaching, and it was with difficulty that he managed to obtain provisions, inasmuch as he was in a hostile territory and unsuccessful in his operations. The Romans at home, when they ascertained it, renounced all hopes of him, and believing that he would survive but a short time longer fell off to Pompey. Some few senators and others set out to join the latter even so late as this. It happened just at this time that the Massilians were defeated in a naval battle by Brutus through the size of his ships and the strength of his marines, although they had Domitius as an ally and surpassed in their experience of naval affairs; they were subsequently shut in entirely. But for this nothing would have prevented Caesar's projects from being ruined. As it was, however, the victory by preconcerted arrangement was announced to the Spaniards with so many embellishments that it led some of them to change and follow the fortunes of Caesar. When he had obtained these as adherents, he secured plenty of food, constructed bridges, harassed his opponents, and once intercepted suddenly a number of them who were wandering about the country and destroyed them.
[-22-] Afranius was disheartened at these results, and seeing that affairs in Ilerda were not safe or satisfactory for a prolonged delay, he determined to retire to the Iber and to the cities there. He set out on this journey by night, intending to escape the enemy's notice or at least get the start of them. His departure proved no secret, yet he was not immediately pursued, for Caesar did not think it safe in the darkness to follow up with men who were strangers to the place an enemy that was well acquainted with the country. When, however, day dawned, he hastened forward and overtaking them in the middle of their journey he encompassed them suddenly on all sides from a distance; for he was much superior in numbers and found the bowl-shaped character of the country a help. He did not wish to come into close quarters with the enemy, partly because he was afraid that they might become frenzied and accomplish some desperate undertaking, and partly again because he hoped to win them over without conflict. This also took place. They tried to break through at many points, but were unable to do so anywhere: they were wearied from loss of sleep and from their march; they had no food, since, expecting to finish their journey the same day, they had brought none, and were not well supplied with water, for that region is notably waterless: for these reasons they surrendered themselves, on condition that they should not be maltreated nor compelled to join his expedition against Pompey. [-23-]Caesar kept each of his promises to them scrupulously He killed not a single man captured in this war in spite of the fact that his foes had once, during a kind of truce, destroyed some of his own men who were in an unguarded position; and he did not force them to fight against Pompey, but released the most eminent and employed the rest as voluntary allies induced by the prospect of gains and honors. By this act he grew very greatly both in reputation and prosperity, and attached to his cause all the cities in Spain and all the soldiers who were in them (some of whom were in Baetica and others, quite a number, with Marcus Terentius Varro, the lieutenant). [-24-] In taking charge of these and arranging their affairs he pursued his course as far as Gades, injuring no one except so far as a collection of money was concerned,—for of this he levied very large amounts. Many of the natives he honored both privately and publicly and to all the people of Gades he granted citizenship, in which the people of Rome later confirmed them. This kindness he did them in return for the vision of his dream at the time that he was quaestor there, wherein he seemed to have intercourse with his mother and had received the hope of sole rulership, as I have stated.[70] After this act he assigned that nation to Cassius Longinus because the latter was accustomed to the inhabitants from his quaestorship which he had served under Pompey. Caesar himself proceeded by boat to Tarraco. Thence he advanced across the Pyrenees, but did not set up any trophy on their summits because he understood that not even Pompey was well spoken of for so doing; but he erected a great altar constructed of polished stones not far from his rival's trophies.
[-25-] While this was going on the Massilians, as ships had again been sent them by Pompey, faced danger afresh. They were defeated, to be sure, on this occasion also, but held their ground even though they learned that Caesar was already master of Spain. All attacks they vigorously repulsed and made a truce, pretendedly for the purpose of arranging terms with Caesar, when he should come. Then they sent out Domitius secretly and wrought such havoc among the soldiers who had attacked them in the midst of the truce and by night, that these ventured to make no further attempts. With Caesar, however, when he came himself, they made terms: he at that time deprived them of their arms, ships and money, and later of everything else except the name of freedom. To counterbalance this misfortune Phocaea, their mother city, was made independent by Pompey.
[-26-] At Placentia some soldiers mutinied and refused to accompany Caesar longer, under the pretext that they were exhausted, but really because he did not allow them to plunder the country nor to do all the other things on which their minds were set; they were hoping to obtain anything whatever of him, inasmuch as he stood in such tremendous need of them. Yet he did not yield, but, with a view to being safe from them and in order that after listening to his address and seeing the persons punished they should feel no wish in an way to transgress the established rules, he called together both the mutinous body and the rest, and spoke as follows:—[-27-] "Fellow soldiers, I desire to have your love, and still I should not choose on that account to participate in your errors. I am fond of you and should wish, as a father might for his children, that you should be preserved, be prosperous, and have a good repute. Do not think it is the duty of one who loves to assent to things which ought not to be done, and for which it is quite inevitable that dangers and ill-repute should fall to the lot of his beloved, but rather he must teach them the better way and keep them from the worse, both by advising and by disciplining them. You will recognize that I speak the truth if you do not estimate advantage with reference to the pleasure of the moment but instead with reference to what is continually beneficial, and if you will avoid thinking that gratifying your desires is more noble than restraining them. It is disgraceful to take pleasure temporarily in something of which you must later repent, and it is outrageous after conquering the enemy to be vanquished by some pleasure or other.
[-28-] "To what do the words I speak apply? To the fact that you have provisions in abundance,—I am going to speak right out with no disguise: you do get your pay in full and on time and you are always and everywhere supplied with plenty of food—that you endure no inglorious toil nor useless danger; furthermore that you gather many great prizes for your bravery and are rebuked little or not at all for your errors, and yet you do not see fit to be satisfied with these things. I am speaking not of all of you, for you are not all such men, but only to those who for their own gain are casting reproach on the rest. Most of you obey my orders very scrupulously and satisfactorily, abide by your ancestral customs, and in that way have acquired so much land and wealth and glory; some few, however, are attaching much disgrace and disrespect to all of us. Though I understood clearly before this that they were that sort of persons,—for there is none of your interests that I fail to notice,—still I pretended not to know it, thinking that they might become better if they believed they were not observed in some of their evil deeds and had the fear that if they ever presumed too far they might be punished for the guilt of which they were conscious. Since they, however, proceeding on the ground that they may do whatever they wish because they were not brought to book at the very start, are overbold and are trying to make the rest of you, who are guilty of no irregularity, likewise mutinous, it becomes necessary for me to devote some care to them and to give them my attention. [-29-] In general, no society of men can preserve its unity and continue to exist, if the criminal element be not disciplined: if the part afflicted does not receive proper medicine, it causes all the rest, as in fleshly bodies, to be sick at the same time. And least of all in armies can discipline be relaxed, because when the wrongdoers have strength they become more daring and corrupt the excellent also by causing them to grow dejected and to believe that they will obtain no benefit from right behavior. Wherever the insolent element has the advantage, there inevitably the decent element has the worst of it: and wherever injustice is unpunished, there uprightness also goes without reward. What is there you could assert is doing right, if these men are doing no wrong? How could you logically desire to be honored, if these men do not endure their just punishment? Are you ignorant of the fact that if one class is freed from the fear of retribution and the other is deprived of the hope of prizes, no good is brought about, but only numberless ills? Hence if you really practice valor and excellence, you should detest these men as enemies. What is friendly is not distinguished from what is hostile by any characteristic of birth, but is determined by habits and actions, which if they are good can make the alien intimate, but if they are bad can alienate everything, even kindred. [-30-] And you should speak in your own defence, because by the behavior of these few we must all inevitably fall into disrepute, even if we have done no wrong. Every one who is acquainted with our numbers and progress refers the errors of the few to us all; and thus though we do not share in their gains, we bear an equal share of their reproach. Who would not be indignant at hearing that we had the name of Romans, but did deeds of the Celtae? Who would not lament the sight of Italy ravaged like Britain? Is it not outrageous for us to cease injuring the possessions of the Gauls, because they are subdued, and then to devastate the property of dwellers south of the Alps, as if they were some Epirots, or Carthaginians, or Cimbi? Is it not disgraceful for us to give ourselves airs and say that we were the first of the Romans to cross the Rhine and to sail the ocean, and then to plunder our native land which is safe from harm at the hands of foes and to receive blame instead of praise, dishonor in place of honor, loss instead of gain, punishment instead of prizes?[-31-] Do not think that because you are in the army, that makes you stronger than the citizens at home. You are both Romans, and they like you both have been and will be soldiers. Nor yet again that because you have arms, it is permitted you to injure. The laws have more authority than you, and some day you will without fail lay down these weapons. Do not, again, rely on your numbers. Those capable of being wronged are, if they unite, more than you. And they will unite, if you do wrong. Do not, because you have conquered the barbarians, despise these citizens also, from whom you differ not the slightest either in birth or in education, in the matter of food or in customs. Instead, as is proper and advantageous for you, use no violence and wrong no one of them, but receive provisions from their willingness to provide, and accept rewards from their willing hands. [-32-] In addition to what I have just said and other considerations that one might cite who should enter upon a long discussion of such questions, you must also take account of the following fact,—that we have come here now to assist our country under oppression and to ward off those that are harming her. If she were in no danger, we should neither have come into Italy with arms,—since it is unlawful,—nor should we have left unfinished the business of the Celts and Britons, when we might have subjugated those regions too. Then is it not remarkable if we who are here for vengeance upon the evildoers should show ourselves no less greedy of gain than they? Is it not inconceivable that when we have arrived to aid our country we should force her to require other allies against us? And yet I think my claims so much better warranted than Pompey's that I have often challenged him to a trial; and since he by reason of his guilty conscience has refused to have the questions peaceably decided, I hope by this act of his to attach to my cause all the allies and the entire people. But now, if we also shall take up a course similar to his, I shall not have any decent excuse to offer nor be able to charge my opponents with any unbecoming conduct. You must also look ahead very carefully to the justice of your cause. If you have this, the strength that arms afford is full of hope, but without it nothing remains sure, though for the moment a man may be successful.
[-33-] "That nature has ordained this most of you understand, and you fulfill all your duties without urging. That is why I have convened you,—to make you both witnesses and spectators of my words and acts. But you are not of such a character as some men I have been mentioning and therefore it is that you receive praise. Only some few of you observe how, in addition to working many injuries and paying no penalty at all for them hitherto, these malcontents are also threatening us. However, as a general principle, I do not think it well for any ruler to be subdued by his subjects, nor do I believe that any safety could possibly result, if the class appointed to assist a person should attempt to overcome him. Consider what sort of order could exist in a house where those in the prime of youth should despise their elders, or what order in schools, if the students should pay no heed to their instructors? What health would there be for the sick, if those indisposed should not obey their physicians in all points, or what safety for the navigators if the sailors should turn a deaf ear to their pilots? It is by a natural law both necessary and salutary that the principle of ruling and again that of being ruled have been placed among men, and without them it is impossible for anything to continue to exist for ever so short a time. Now it belongs to him who is stationed over another both to think out and to command the requisite course, and to him who is made subservient to obey without questioning and to put the order into action. By this the sensible element is distinguished from the senseless and the understanding element from the ignorant in all matters.
[-34-] "Since these things are so I would never under compulsion assent to these brawlers nor give them my permission perforce. Why am I sprung from Aeneas and Iulus, why have I been praetor, why consul, for what end have I led some of you out from home and gathered others later, for what end have I received and held the authority of a proconsul now for so long a time, if I am to be a slave to any one of you and conquered by any one of you here in Italy and near to Rome,—I, to whom you owe your subjection of the Gauls and your conquest of Britain? What should I fear or dread? That some one of you will kill me? Nay, but if you all had this mind, I would voluntarily choose to die rather than to give up the dignity of my position as leader or to abandon the attitude of mind befitting the head of an enterprise. For a far greater danger than the unjust death of one man confronts the city, if the soldiers shall become accustomed to issue orders to their generals and to take the justice of the law into their own hands.[-35-] No one of them, however, has so much as made this threat: if he had, I am sure he would have been slain forthwith by the rest of you. But they are withdrawing from the campaign on the pretence of being wearied and are laying down their arms because (they say) they are worn out, and certainly if they do not obtain my consent to this wish of theirs, they will leave their ranks and go over to Pompey: some of them make this perfectly evident. Who would not be glad to be deprived of such men, and who would not pray that such soldiers might belong to his rival, seeing that they are not content with what is given and are not obedient to orders, but that simulating old age in the midst of youth and in strength simulating weakness they claim the right to lord it over their rulers and to tyrannize over their leaders? I had ten thousand times rather be reconciled with Pompey on any terms whatever or suffer any other conceivable fate than do anything unworthy of my native thought or of my own deliberate policy. Are you unaware that it is not sovereignty or gain that I desire and that I am not bent upon accomplishing anything absolutely, an at any cost, so that I would lie and flatter and fawn upon people to this end? Will you give up, then, for these reasons the campaign, O what can I call you? Yet still it shall be not as you yourselves desire and say but as is profitable for the commonwealth and for myself."
After this speech he distributed lots among them for the infliction of the death penalty, and the most audacious,—for these, as was previously arranged, drew the lots,—he condemned, and the rest he dismissed, saying he had no further need of them. And they repented of what they had done and were ready to renew the campaign.
[-36-] While he was still on the way Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, the man who later became a member of the triumvirate, in his capacity of praetor took counsel with the people to elect Caesar dictator and immediately moved his nomination, contrary to ancestral custom. The latter accepted the office as soon as he entered the city, but committed no act of terror while in it. On the contrary he granted a return to all the exiles except Milo, and filled the offices for the ensuing year: at that time they had chosen no one temporarily in place of the absentees, and whereas there was no aedile in town, the tribunes exercised all the functions pertaining to the aedileship: moreover he set up priests in the places of those who were lost (though not observing all the detailed ceremonies that were customary for them at such a juncture), and to the Gauls who live this side of the Alps and beyond the Po he gave citizenship because he had once governed them. After effecting this he resigned the name of dictator, for he had quite all the power and functions of the position constantly in his grasp. He employed the strength that is afforded by arms, and also got in addition a quasi-legal authority from the senate that was on the spot; for he was permitted to do with impunity whatever he might wish.
[-37-] Having obtained this he at once set aright an affair of great moment and necessity. The money lenders had exacted money quite relentlessly from some, who needed large funds on account of the political disputes and the wars. Many of the debtors by reason of the same events were not able, even if they wished it, to pay back anything; for they did not find it easy to sell anything or to borrow more. Hence the mutual dealings of the two classes were ofttimes marked by deceit and ofttimes by treachery, so that there was fear of the matter progressing till it became an incurable evil. Certain modifications in regard to interest had been made even before this by some of the tribunes, but since even so payment was not secured, but the one class kept forfeiting its securities and the other demanding the principal in money, Caesar now came to the aid of both so far as he could. He ordered that securities should have a fixed valuation according to their worth, and to decide that point he assigned arbiters to be allotted to persons disputing any point. [-38-] Since also many were said to possess large properties but to be concealing all their wealth, he forbade any one to have more than fifteen thousand denarii in silver or gold: this law, he alleged, he did not enact himself, but he was simply enforcing a measure some time previously introduced. His object was either that those who owed should make good some of their debt to the lenders and the rest lend to such as needed, or else that the well-to-do might be clearly apparent and no one of them keep his property all together, for fear some political change might take place in his absence. When the populace, elated at this, asked that in addition to it rewards be offered to servants for information against their masters, he refused to add such a clause to the law and furthermore called down dire destruction upon himself if he should ever trust a slave speaking against his master.