Plutarch's Lives, Volume 3 (of 4)

by Plutarch

XXIII. Cæsar now led his troops over the river, no one venturing to oppose him, and even the Suevi, the most valiant of the Germans, retired with their property into deep woody valleys. After devastating with fire the enemy's country and encouraging all those who favoured the Romans, he returned into Gaul after spending eighteen days in Germany. His expedition against the Britanni[498] was notorious for its daring: for he was the first who entered the western Ocean with an armament and sailed through the Atlantic sea, leading an army to war; and by attempting to occupy an island of incredible magnitude, which furnished matter for much dispute to numerous writers, who affirmed that the name and the accounts about it were pure inventions, for it never had existed and did not then exist, he extended the Roman supremacy beyond the inhabited world. After twice crossing over to the island from the opposite coast of Gaul, and worsting the enemy in many battles rather than advantaging his own men, for there was nothing worth taking from men who lived so wretched a life and were so poor, he brought the war to a close not such as he wished, but taking hostages from the king and imposing a tribute, he retired from the island. On his return he found letters which were just going to cross over to him from his friends in Rome, informing him of his daughter's death, who died in child-birth in the house of her husband Pompeius. Great was the grief of Pompeius, and great was the grief of Cæsar; and their friends were also troubled, as the relationship was now dissolved which maintained peace and concord in the State, which but for this alliance was threatened with disturbance. The child also died after surviving the mother only a few days. Now the people, in spite of the tribunes, carried Julia[499] to the Field of Mars, where her obsequies were celebrated; and there she lies.

XXIV. As the force of Cæsar was now large, he was obliged to distribute it in many winter encampments. But while he was on his road to Italy, according to his custom, there was another general rising of the Gauls, and powerful armies scouring the country attempted to destroy the winter camps, and attacked the Roman entrenchments. The most numerous and bravest of the revolted Gauls under Abriorix destroyed Cotta[500] and Titurius with their army; and the legion under Cicero[501] they surrounded with sixty thousand men and blockaded, and they came very near taking the camp by storm, for all the Romans had been wounded and were courageously defending themselves above their strength. When this intelligence reached Cæsar, who was at a distance, he quickly turned about, and getting together seven thousand men in all, he hurried to release Cicero from the blockade. The besiegers were aware of his approach and met him with the intention of cutting him off at once, for they despised the fewness of his numbers. But Cæsar, deceiving the enemy, avoided them continually, and having occupied a position which was advantageous to one who had to contend against many with a small force, he fortified his camp, and kept his men altogether from fighting; and he made them increase the height of the ramparts and build up the gates as if they were afraid, his manœuvre being to make the enemy despise him, till at last when they made their assault in scattered bodies, urged by self-confidence, sallying out he put them to flight and killed many of them.

XXV.[502] The frequent defections of the Gauls in those parts were thus quieted, and also by Cæsar during the winter moving about in all directions and carefully watching disturbances. For there had come to him from Italy three legions to replace those that had perished, Pompeius having lent him two of those which were under his command, and one legion having been newly raised in Gaul upon the Padus. But in the course of time there showed themselves, what had long in secret been planted and spread abroad by the most powerful men among the most warlike tribes, the elements of the greatest and the most dangerous of all the wars in Gaul, strengthened by a numerous body of young men armed and collected from all quarters, and by great stores brought together, and fortified cities, and countries difficult of access. And at that time, during the winter, frozen rivers and forests buried in snow, and plains overflowed by winter torrents, and in some parts paths that could not be discovered for the depth of the snow, and in other parts the great uncertainty of a march through marshes and streams diverted from their course, seemed to place the proceedings of the insurgents altogether beyond any attempt on the part of Cæsar. Accordingly many tribes had revolted, but the leaders of the revolt were the Arvenni and the Carnuntini; Vergentorix was elected to the supreme direction of the war, he whose father the Gauls had put to death on the ground of aiming at a tyranny.

XXVI. Vergentorix,[503] dividing his force into many parts, and placing over them many commanders, began to gain over all the surrounding country as far as those who bordered on the Arar, it being his design, as Cæsar's enemies in Rome were combining against him, to rouse all Gaul to war. If he had attempted this a little later, when Cæsar was engaged in the civil war, alarms no less than those from the invasion of the Cimbri would have seized on Italy. But now Cæsar, who appears to have had the talent for making the best use of all opportunities in war, and particularly critical seasons, as soon as he heard of the rising, set out on his march, by the very roads[504] that he traversed, and the impetuosity and rapidity of his march in so severe a winter letting the barbarians see that an invincible and unvanquished army was coming against them. For where no one believed that a messenger or a letter-carrier from him could make his way in a long time, there was Cæsar seen with all his army, at once ravaging their lands, and destroying the forts, taking cities, and receiving those who changed sides and came over to him, till at last even the nation of the Edui[505] declared against him, who up to this time had called themselves brothers of the Romans, and had received signal distinction, but now by joining the insurgents they greatly dispirited Cæsar's troops. In consequence of this, Cæsar moved from those parts, and passed over the territory of the Lingones,[506] wishing to join the Sequani, who were friends, and formed a bulwark in front of Italy against the rest of Gaul. There the enemy fell upon him and hemmed him in with many ten thousands, upon which Cæsar resolved to fight a decisive battle against the combined forces, and after a great contest, he gained a victory at last, and with great slaughter, routed the barbarians; but at first it appears that he sustained some loss, and the Aruveni show a dagger[507] suspended in a temple, which they say was taken from Cæsar. Cæsar himself afterwards saw it, and smiled; and when his friends urged him to take it down, he would not, because he considered it consecrated.

XXVII. However, the chief part of those who then escaped, fled with the king to the city of Alesia.[508] And while Cæsar was besieging this city, which was considered to be impregnable by reason of the strength of the walls and the number of the defenders, there fell upon him from without a danger great beyond all expectation. For the strength of all the nations in Gaul assembling in arms came against Alesia, to the number of three hundred thousand; and the fighting men in the city were not fewer than one hundred and seventy thousand; so that Cæsar being caught between two such forces and blockaded, was compelled to form two walls for his protection, the one towards the city, and the other opposite those who had come upon him, since, if these forces should unite, his affairs would be entirely ruined. On many accounts then, and with good reason, the hazard before the walls of Alesia was famed abroad, as having produced deeds of daring and skill such as no other struggle had done; but it is most worthy of admiration that Cæsar engaged with so many thousands outside of the town and defeated them without it being known to those in the city; and still more admirable, that this was also unknown to the Romans who were guarding the wall towards the city. For they knew nothing of the victory till they heard the weeping of the men in Alesia and the wailing of the women, when they saw on the other side many shields adorned with silver and gold, and many breastplates smeared with blood, and also cups and Gallic tents conveyed by the Romans to their camp. So quickly did so mighty a force, like a phantom or a dream, vanish out of sight and disperse, the greater part of the men having fallen in battle. But those who held Alesia, after giving no small trouble to themselves and to Cæsar, at last surrendered; and the leader of the whole war, Vergentorix, putting on his best armour, and equipping his horse, came out through the gates, and riding round Cæsar who was seated, and then leaping down from his horse, he threw off his complete armour, and seating himself at Cæsar's feet, he remained there till he was delivered up to be kept for the triumph.

XXVIII.[509] Cæsar had long ago resolved to put down Pompeius, as Pompeius also had fully resolved to do towards him. For now that Crassus had lost his life among the Parthians, who kept a watch over both of them, it remained for one of them, in order to be the chief, to put down him who was, and to him who was the chief, to take off the man whom he feared, in order that this might not befall him. But it had only recently occurred to Pompeius to take alarm, and hitherto he had despised Cæsar, thinking it would be no difficult thing for the man whom he had elevated to be again depressed by him; but Cæsar, who had formed his design from the beginning, like an athlete, removed himself to a distance from his antagonists, and exercised himself in the Celtic wars, and thus disciplined his troops and increased his reputation, being elevated by his exploits to an equality with the victories of Pompeius; also laying hold of pretexts, some furnished by the conduct of Pompeius himself, and others by the times and the disordered state of the administration at Rome, owing to which, those who were candidates for magistracies placed tables in public and shamelessly bribed the masses, and the people being hired went down to show their partisanship not with votes on behalf of their briber, but with bows and swords and slings. And after polluting the Rostra with blood and dead bodies, they separated, leaving the city to anarchy, like a ship carried along without a pilot, so that sensible men were well content if matters should result in nothing worse than a monarchy after such madness and such tempest. And there were many who even ventured to say publicly that the state of affairs could only be remedied by a monarchy, and that they ought to submit to this remedy when applied by the mildest of physicians, hinting at Pompeius. But when Pompeius in what he said affected to decline the honour, though in fact he was more than anything else labouring to bring about his appointment as dictator, Cato, who saw through his intention, persuaded the Senate to appoint him sole consul, that he might not by violent means get himself made dictator, and might be contented with a mere constitutional monarchy. They also decreed an additional period for his provinces: and he had two, Iberia[510] and all Libya, which he administered by sending Legati and maintaining armies, for which he received out of the public treasury a thousand talents every year.

XXIX. Upon this, Cæsar began to canvass for a consulship by sending persons to Rome, and also for a prorogation of the government of his provinces. At first Pompeius kept silent, but Marcellus[511] and Lentulus opposed his claim, for they hated Cæsar on other grounds, and they added to what was necessary what was not necessary, to dishonour and insult him. For they deprived of the citizenship the inhabitants of Novum Comum[512] a colony lately settled by Cæsar in Gaul; and Marcellus, who was consul, punished with stripes one of the Senators of Novum Comum who had come to Rome, and added too this insult, "That he put these marks upon him to show that he was not a Roman," and he told him to go and show them to Cæsar. After the consulship of Marcellus, when Cæsar had now profusely poured forth his Gallic wealth for all those engaged in public life to draw from, and had released Curio[513] the tribune from many debts, and given to Paulus the consul fifteen hundred talents, out of which he decorated the Forum with the Basilica, a famous monument which he built in place of the old one called Fulvia;—under these circumstances, Pompeius, fearing cabal, both openly himself and by means of his friends exerted himself to have a successor[514] appointed to Cæsar in his government, and he sent and demanded back of him the soldiers[515] which he had lent to Cæsar for the Gallic wars. Cæsar sent the men back after giving each of them a present of two hundred and fifty drachmæ. The officers who led these troops to Pompeius, spread abroad among the people reports about Cæsar which were neither decent nor honest; and they misled Pompeius by ill-founded hopes, telling him that the army of Cæsar longed to see him, and that while he with difficulty directed affairs at Rome owing to the odium produced by secret intrigues, the force with Cæsar was all ready for him, and that if Cæsar's soldiers should only cross over to Italy, they would forthwith be on his side: so hateful, they said, had Cæsar become to them on account of his numerous campaigns, and so suspected owing to their fear of monarchy. With all this Pompeius was inflated, and he neglected to get soldiers in readiness, as if he were under no apprehension; but by words and resolution he was overpowering Cæsar, as he supposed, by carrying decrees against him, which Cæsar cared not for at all. It is even said that one of the centurions who had been sent by him to Rome, while standing in front of the Senate-house, on hearing that the Senate would not give Cæsar a longer term in his government. "But this," he said, "shall give it," striking the hilt of his sword with his hand.

XXX. However, the claim of Cæsar at least had a striking show of equity. For he proposed that he should lay down his arms and that when Pompeius had done the same and both had become private persons, they should get what favours they could from the citizens; and he argued that if they took from him his power and confirmed to Pompeius what he had, they would be stigmatizing one as a tyrant and making the other a tyrant in fact. When Curio made this proposal before the people on behalf of Cæsar, he was loudly applauded; and some even threw chaplets of flowers upon him as on a victorious athlete. Antonius, who was tribune, produced to the people a letter[516] of Cæsar's on this subject which he had received, and he read it in spite of the consuls. But in the Senate, Scipio, the father-in-law of Pompeius, made a motion, that if Cæsar did not lay down his arms on a certain day, he should be declared an enemy. Upon the consuls putting the question, whether they were of opinion that Pompeius should dismiss his troops, and again, whether Cæsar should, very few voted in favour of the former question, and all but a few voted in favour of the latter; but when Antonius[517] on his side moved that both should dismiss their troops, all unanimously were in favour of that opinion. Scipio made a violent opposition, and Lentulus, the consul, called out that they needed arms to oppose a robber, and not votes, on which the Senate broke up and the Senators changed their dress as a sign of lamentation on account of the dissension.

XXXI. But when letters had come from Cæsar by which he appeared to moderate his demands, for he proposed to surrender everything else except Gaul within the Alps and Illyricum with two legions, which should be given to him to hold till he was a candidate for a second consulship, and Cicero the orator, who had just returned from Cilicia and was labouring at a reconciliation, was inducing Pompeius to relent, and Pompeius was ready to yield in everything else except as to the soldiers, whom he still insisted on taking from Cæsar, Cicero urged the friends of Cæsar to give in and to come to a settlement on the terms of the above-mentioned provinces and the allowance of six thousand soldiers, only to Cæsar. Pompeius was ready to yield and to give way; but the consul Lentulus would not let him, and he went so far as to insult and drive with dishonour from the Senate both Curio and Antonius, thus himself contriving for Cæsar the most specious of all pretexts, by the aid of which indeed Cæsar mainly excited the passions of his men, pointing out to them that men of distinction and magistrates had made their escape in hired vehicles in the dress of slaves. For, putting on this guise through fear, they had stolen out of Rome.

XXXII. Now Cæsar had about him no more than three hundred horse and five thousand legionary soldiers; for the rest of his army, which had been left beyond the Alps, was to be conducted by those whom he sent for that purpose. Seeing that the commencement of his undertaking and the onset did not so much require a large force at the present, but were to be effected by the alarm which a bold stroke would create and by quickly seizing his opportunity, for he concluded that he should strike terror by his unexpected movement more easily than he could overpower his enemies by attacking them with all his force, he ordered his superior officers and centurions with their swords alone and without any other weapons to take Ariminum, a large city of Gaul, avoiding all bloodshed and confusion as much as possible; and he intrusted the force to Hortensius.[518] Cæsar himself passed the day in public, standing by some gladiators who were exercising, and looking on; and a little before evening after attending to his person and going into the mess-room and staying awhile with those who were invited to supper, just as it was growing dark he rose, and courteously addressing the guests, told them to wait for his return, but he had previously given notice to a few of his friends to follow him, not all by the same route, but by different directions. Mounting one of the hired vehicles, he drove at first along another road, and then turning towards Ariminium, when he came to the stream which divides Gaul within the Alps from the rest of Italy (it is called Rubico[519] , and he began to calculate as he approached nearer to the danger, and was agitated by the magnitude of the hazard, he checked his speed; and halting he considered about many things with himself in silence, his mind moving from one side to the other, and his will then underwent many changes; and he also discussed at length with his friends who were present, of whom Pollio Asinius[520] was one, all the difficulties, and enumerated the evils which would ensue to all mankind from his passage of the river, and how great a report of it they would leave to posterity. At last, with a kind of passion, as if he were throwing himself out of reflection into the future, and uttering what is the usual expression with which men preface their entry upon desperate enterprises and daring, "Let the die be cast," he hurried to cross the river; and thence advancing at full speed, he attacked Ariminum before daybreak and took it. It is said that on the night before the passage of the river, he had an impure dream,[521] for he dreamed that he was in unlawful commerce with his mother.