In the National Museum, Naples
Returning to Rome, he gained the Consulship, which was the highest standing office (59 B. C.) There were two consuls; and his colleague was Bibulus, a stupid person, who chanced to be a political adversary. For the first time Cæsar was in a position to display his statesmanship. Two great problems were pressing, the economic improvement of the masses throughout the empire and their protection from the greedy oppression of Roman officials. Against the obstruction of his colleague Cæsar carried a law through the Assembly for the division of large tracts of public land among the needier citizens—a measure which brought him great popularity. Although it did nothing to benefit the subjects, it was a step in the right direction. Another law, worked out in great detail, aimed to prevent officers of the empire from committing extortion upon the subjects. Though doubtless well intended, this law proved ineffective because no one in power cared to enforce it. Most of his consular year, however, he devoted to winning influential friends and to securing for himself an opportunity for further military exploits after the expiration of his Consulship. The territory placed under his government for this purpose included especially Cisalpine Gaul—substantially the Po Basin—and Narbonensis, a strip of land extending along the southern coast of Gaul, now France.
Disturbances beyond his borders gave him a pretext for war, which lasted eight years (58-50 B. C.), and which resulted in the conquest of Gaul. In accomplishing this end Cæsar employed his most brilliant generalship, including lightning-like movements and daring strategy. When we consider that he had had little experience in warfare, we must regard his achievements as marvellous. The conquest was accompanied by great cruelty to the conquered. On one occasion more than fifty thousand captives were sold into slavery; on another he beheaded the senators of a conquered community and sold all the people as slaves. At another time he massacred an entire tribe, numbering more than four hundred thousand men, women, and children. The plunder, and especially the sale of captives, brought the victor enormous wealth, a part of which he devoted to buying supporters at Rome. After overawing Gaul with terrorism he adopted a policy of conciliation, by which he won the fidelity of the survivors. Although in entering upon the conquest Cæsar had merely his own aggrandizement in mind, he must in the end have come to an appreciation of the value of the new province to the empire. Even after the vast slaughter and enslavement of the bravest Gauls, the survivors were full of vitality. The country was rich in agricultural and mineral resources, and the Rhone River formed a convenient outlet for the country’s products in the direction of Rome. This acquisition added great strength to the empire, and prepared the ground for the extension of Roman civilization into western and central Europe. The conquest was, in fact, the greatest achievement of Cæsar’s genius.
From History of Rome, by G. W. Botsford, The Macmillan Co., Publishers
WARFARE IN CÆSAR’S TIME
ROMAN LEGIONARY SOLDIER
From Duruy’s “History of Rome”
