Apotheosis of Caesar.
[C.] Periit sexto et quinquagesimo aetatis anno atque in deorum numerum relatus est, non ore modo decernentium sed et persuasione volgi. Si quidem ludis, quos primos consecrato ei heres Augustus edebat, 20 stella crinita per septem continuos dies fulsit, exoriens circa undecimam horam, creditumque est animam esse Caesaris in caelum recepti; et hac de causa simulacro eius in vertice additur stella.
Suet. Div. Iul. 88.
21 stella crinita (= κομήτης); cf. Verg. Georg. iv. 466-8:
Ille (= the sun) etiam exstincto miseratus Caesare Romam
Cum caput obscura nitidum ferrugine (= gloom) texit,
Impiaque aeternam timuerunt saecula noctem.
‘FACTA DUCIS VIVENT, OPEROSAQUE GLORIA RERUM.’—OVID.
‘THE HERO’S DEEDS AND HARD-WON FAME SHALL LIVE.’
Caesar was the sole creative genius produced by Rome, and the last produced by the ancient world, which accordingly moved on in the path that he marked out for it until its sun went down.
Whatever he undertook and achieved was pervaded and guided by the cool sobriety which constitutes the most marked peculiarity of his genius. To this he owed the power of living energetically in the present, undisturbed either by recollection or by expectation: to this he owed the capacity of acting at any moment with collected vigour, and of applying his whole genius even to the smallest and most incidental enterprise. Gifts such as these could not fail to produce a statesman.