Plutarch's Lives, Volume 3 (of 4)

by Plutarch

LIII. However Scipio[564] was encouraged by these advantages to hazard a decisive battle; and leaving Afranius and Juba[565] encamped each separately at a short distance, he commenced making a fortified camp above a lake near the city Thapsus, intending it as a place for the whole army to sally forth from to battle and a place of refuge also. While he was thus employed, Cæsar with incredible speed making his way through woody grounds which contained certain approaches that had not been observed, surrounded part of the enemy and attacked others in front. Having put these to flight he availed himself of the critical moment and the career of fortune, by means of which he captured the camp of Afranius on the first assault, and at the first assault also he broke into the camp of the Numidians from which Juba fled; and in a small part of a single day he made himself master of three camps and destroyed fifty thousand of the enemy without losing as many as fifty of his own men. This is the account that some writers give of that battle; but others say that Cæsar was not in the action himself, but that as he was marshalling and arranging his forces, he was attacked by his usual complaint, and that perceiving it as soon as it came on, and before his senses were completely confounded and overpowered by the malady, just as he was beginning to be convulsed, he was carried to one of the neighbouring towers and stayed there quietly. Of the men of consular and prætorian rank who escaped from the battle, some killed themselves when they were being taken, and Cæsar put many to death who were captured.

LIV. Being ambitious to take Cato[566] alive, Cæsar hastened to Utica, for Cato was guarding that city and was not in the battle. Hearing that Cato had put an end to himself, Cæsar was evidently annoyed, but for what reason is uncertain. However, he said, "Cato, I grudge you your death, for you also have grudged me the preservation of your life." But the work which be wrote against Cato after his death cannot be considered an indication that he was mercifully disposed towards him or in a mood to be easily reconciled. For how can we suppose that he would have spared Cato living, when he poured out against him after he was dead so much indignation? However, some persons infer from his mild treatment of Cicero and Brutus and ten thousand others of his enemies that this discourse also was composed not from any enmity, but from political ambition, for the following reason. Cicero wrote a panegyric on Cato and gave the composition the title "Cato"; and the discourse was eagerly read by many, as one may suppose, being written by the most accomplished of orators on the noblest subject. This annoyed Cæsar, who considered the panegyric on a man whose death he had caused to be an attack upon himself. Accordingly in his treatise he got together many charges against Cato; and the work is entitled "Anticato."[567] Both compositions have many admirers, as well on account of Cæsar as of Cato.

LV. However, on his return[568] to Rome from Libya, in the first place Cæsar made a pompous harangue to the people about his victory, in which he said that he had conquered a country large enough to supply annually to the treasury two hundred thousand Attic medimni of corn, and three million litræ of oil. In the next place he celebrated triumphs,[569] the Egyptian, the Pontic, and the Libyan, not of course for his victory over Scipio, but over Juba.[570] On that occasion Juba also, the son of King Juba, who was still an infant, was led in the triumphal procession, most fortunate in his capture, for from being a barbarian and a Numidian he became numbered among the most learned of the Greek writers. After the triumphs Cæsar made large presents to the soldiers, and entertained the people with banquets and spectacles, feasting the whole population at once at twenty-two thousand triclina,[571] and exhibiting also shows of gladiators and naval combats in honour of his daughter Julia who had been dead for some time. After the shows a census[572] was taken, in which instead of the three hundred and twenty thousand of former enumerations, there were enrolled only one hundred and fifty thousand. So much desolation had the civil wars produced and so large a proportion of the people had been destroyed in them, not to reckon the miseries that had befallen the rest of Italy and the provinces.

LVI. All this being completed, Cæsar was made consul[573] for the fourth time, and set out to Iberia to attack the sons of Pompeius, who were still young, but had got together a force of amazing amount and displayed a boldness that showed they were worthy to command, so that they put Cæsar in the greatest danger. The great battle was fought near the city of Munda,[574] in which Cæsar, seeing that his men were being driven from their ground and making a feeble resistance, ran through the arms and the ranks calling out, "If they had no sense of shame, to take and deliver him up to the boys." With difficulty and after great exertion he put the enemy to flight and slaughtered above thirty thousand of them, but he lost a thousand of his own best soldiers. On retiring after the battle he said to his friends, that he had often fought for victory, but now for the first time he had fought for existence. He gained this victory on the day of the festival of Bacchus, on which day it is said that Pompeius Magnus also went out to battle; the interval was four years. The younger of the sons[575] of Pompeius escaped, but after a few days Didius[576] brought the head of the elder. This was the last war that Cæsar was engaged in; but the triumph[577] that was celebrated for this victory vexed the Romans more than anything else. For this was no victory over foreign leaders nor yet over barbarian kings, but Cæsar had destroyed the children of the bravest of the Romans, who had been unfortunate, and had completely ruined his family, and it was not seemly to celebrate a triumph over the calamities of his country, exulting in these things, for which the only apology both before gods and men was that they had been done of necessity; and that too when he had never before sent either messenger or public letters to announce a victory gained in the civil wars, but had from motives of delicacy rejected all glory on that account.

LVII. However, the Romans, gave way before the fortune of the man and received the bit, and considering the monarchy to be a respite from the civil wars and miseries they appointed him dictator[578] for life. This was confessedly a tyranny, for the monarchy received in addition to its irresponsibility the character of permanency; and when Cicero[579] in the Senate had proposed the highest honours[580] to him, which though great were still such as were befitting a human being, others by adding still further honours and vying with one another made Cæsar odious and an object of dislike even to those who were of the most moderate temper, by reason of the extravagant and unusual character of what was decreed; and it is supposed that those who hated Cæsar cooperated in these measures no less than those who were his flatterers, that they might have as many pretexts as possible against him and might be considered to make their attempt upon him with the best ground of complaint. For in all other respects, after the close of the civil wars, he showed himself blameless; and it was not without good reason that the Romans voted a temple to Clemency to commemorate his moderate measures. For he pardoned many of those who had fought against him, and to some he even gave offices and honours, as to Brutus and Cassius, both of whom were Prætors. He also did not allow the statues of Pompeius to remain thrown down, but he set them up again, on which Cicero said that by erecting the statues of Pompeius, Cæsar had firmly fixed his own. When his friends urged him to have guards and many offered their services for this purpose, he would not consent, and he said, that it was better to die at once than to be always expecting death. But for the purpose of surrounding himself with the affection of the Romans as the noblest and also the securest protection, he again courted the people with banquets and distribution of corn, and the soldiers with the foundation of colonies, of which the most conspicuous were Carthage[581] and Corinth, to both of which it happened that their former capture and their present restoration occurred at once and at the same time.

LVIII. To some of the nobles he promised consulships and prætorships for the future, and others he pacified with certain other offices and honours, and he gave hopes to all, seeking to make it appear that he ruled over them with their own consent, so that when Maximus[582] the consul died, he appointed Caninius Revilius consul for the one day that still remained of the term of office. When many persons were going, as was usual, to salute the new consul and to form part of his train Cicero said, "We must make haste, or the man will have gone out of office." Cæsar's great success did not divert his natural inclination for great deeds and his ambition to the enjoyment of that for which he had laboured, but serving as fuel and incentives to the future bred in him designs of greater things and love of new glory, as if he had used up what he had already acquired; and the passion was nothing else than emulation of himself as if he were another person, and a kind of rivalry between what he intended and what he had accomplished; and his propositions and designs were to march against the Parthians,[583] and after subduing them and marching through Hyrkania and along the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus, and so encompassing the Euxine, to invade Scythia, and after having overrun the countries bordering on the Germans and Germany itself to return through Gaul to Italy, and so to complete his circle of the empire which would be bounded on all sides by the ocean. During this expedition he intended also to dig through the Corinthian Isthmus,[584] and he had already commissioned Anienus to superintend the work; and to receive the Tiber[585] immediately below the city in a deep cut, and giving it a bend towards Circæum to make it enter the sea by Tarracina, with the view of giving security and facility to those who came to Rome for the purpose of trade: besides this he designed to draw off the water from the marshes about Pomentium and Setia,[586] and to make them solid ground, which would employ many thousands of men in the cultivation; and where the sea was nearest to Rome he designed to place barriers to it by means of moles, and after clearing away the hidden rocks and dangerous places on the shore of Ostia[587] to make harbours and naval stations which should give security to the extensive shipping. And all these things were in preparation.

LIX. But the arrangement of the Kalendar[588] and the correction of the irregularity in the reckoning of time were handled by him skilfully, and being completed were of the most varied utility. For it was not only in very ancient times that the Romans had the periods of the moon in confusion with respect to the year, so that the feasts and festivals gradually changing at last fell out in opposite seasons of the year, but even with respect to the solar year at that time nobody kept any reckoning except the priests, who, as they alone knew the proper time, all of a sudden and when nobody expected it, would insert the intercalary month named Mercedonius, which King Numa is said to have been the first to intercalate, thereby devising a remedy, which was slight and would extend to no great period, for the irregularity in the recurrence of the times, as I have explained in the Life of Numa. But Cæsar laying the problem before the ablest philosophers and mathematicians, from the methods that were laid before him compounded a correction of his own which was more exact, which the Romans use to the present time, and are considered to be in less error than other nations as to the inequality. However, even this furnished matter for complaint to those who envied him and disliked his power; for Cicero, the orator, as it is said, when some observed that Lyra would rise to-morrow, "Yes," he replied, "pursuant to the Edict," meaning that men admitted even this by compulsion.

LX. But the most manifest and deadly hatred towards him was produced by his desire of kingly power, which to the many was the first, and to those who had long nourished a secret hatred of him the most specious, cause. And indeed those who were contriving this honour for Cæsar spread about a certain report among the people, that according to the Sibylline writings[589] it appeared that Parthia could be conquered by the Romans if they advanced against it with a king, but otherwise could not he assailed. And as Cæsar was going down from Alba to the city, they ventured to salute him as King, but as the people showed their dissatisfaction, Cæsar was disturbed and said that he was not called King but Cæsar; and as hereupon there was a general silence, he passed along with no great cheerfulness nor good humour on his countenance. When some extravagant honours had been decreed to him in the Senate, it happened that he was sitting above the Rostra,[590] and when the consuls and prætors approached with all the Senate behind them, without rising from his seat, but just as if he were transacting business with private persons, he answered that the honours required rather to be contracted than enlarged. This annoyed not the Senate only, but the people also, who considered that the State was insulted in the persons of the Senate; and those who were not obliged to stay went away forthwith with countenance greatly downcast, so that Cæsar perceiving it forthwith went home, and as he threw his cloak from his shoulders he called out to his friends, that he was ready to offer his throat to anyone who wished to kill him; but afterwards he alleged his disease as an excuse for his behaviour, saying that persons who are so affected cannot usually keep their senses steady when they address a multitude standing, but that the senses being speedily convulsed and whirling about bring on giddiness and are overpowered. However, the fact was not so, for it is said that he was very desirous to rise up when the Senate came, but was checked by one of his friends, or rather one of his flatterers, Cornelius Balbus,[591] who said, "Will you not remember that you are Cæsar, and will you not allow yourself to be honoured as a superior?"

LXI. There was added to these causes of offence the insult offered to the tribunes. It was the festival of the Lupercalia,[592] about which many writers say that it was originally a festival of the shepherds and had also some relationship to the Arcadian Lykæa. On this occasion many of the young nobles and magistrates run through the city without their toga, and for sport and to make laughter strike those whom they meet with strips of hide that have the hair on; many women of rank also purposely put themselves in the way and present their hands to be struck like children at school, being persuaded that this is favourable to easy parturition for those who are pregnant, and to conception for those who are barren. Cæsar was a spectator, being seated at the Rostra on a golden chair in a triumphal robe; and Antonius was one of those who ran in the sacred race, for he was consul. Accordingly, when he entered the Forum and the crowd made way for him, he presented to Cæsar a diadem[593] which he carried surrounded with a crown of bay; and there was a clapping of hands, not loud, but slight, which had been already concerted. When Cæsar put away the diadem from him all the people clapped their hands, and when Antonius presented it again, only a few clapped; but when Cæsar declined to receive it, again all the people applauded. The experiment having thus failed, Cæsar rose and ordered the crown to be carried to the Capitol. But as Cæsar's statues were seen crowned with royal diadems, two of the tribunes, Flavius and Marullus, went up to them and pulled off the diadems, and having discovered those who had been the first to salute Cæsar as king they led them off to prison. The people followed clapping their hands and calling the tribunes Bruti, because it was Brutus who put down the kingly power and placed the sovereignty in the Senate and people instead of its being in the hands of one man. Cæsar being irritated at this deprived Flavius and Marullus of their office, and while rating them he also insulted the people by frequently calling the tribunes Bruti and Cumæi.[594]

LXII. In this state of affairs the many turned to Marcus Brutus,[595] who on his father's side was considered to be a descendant of the ancient Brutus, and on his mother's side belonged to the Servilii, another distinguished house, and he was the son-in-law and nephew of Cato. The honours and favours which Brutus had received from Cæsar dulled him towards attempting of his own proper motion the overthrow of the monarchical power; for not only was his life saved at the battle of Pharsalus after the rout of Pompeius, and many of his friends also at his entreaty, but besides this he had great credit with Cæsar. He had also received among those who then held the prætorship[596] the chief office, and he was to be consul in the fourth year from that time, having been preferred to Cassius who was a rival candidate. For it is said that Cæsar observed that Cassius urged better grounds of preference, but that he could not pass over Brutus. And on one occasion when some persons were calumniating Brutus to him, at a time when the conspiracy was really forming, he would not listen to them, but touching his body with his hand he said to the accusers, "Brutus waits[597] for this dry skin," by which he intended to signify that Brutus was worthy of the power for his merits, but for the sake of the power would not be ungrateful and a villain. Now, those who were eager for the change and who looked up to him alone, or him as the chief person, did not venture to speak with him on the subject, but by night they used to fill the tribunal and the seat on which he sat when discharging his functions as prætor with writings, most of which were to this purport, "You are asleep, Brutus," and "You are not Brutus." By which Cassius,[598] perceiving that his ambition was somewhat stirred, urged him more than he had done before, and pricked him on; and Cassius himself had also a private grudge against Cæsar for the reasons which I have mentioned in the Life of Brutus. Indeed Cæsar suspected Cassius, and he once said to his friends, "What think ye is Cassius aiming at? for my part, I like him not over much, for he is over pale." On the other hand it is said that when a rumour reached him, that Antonius and Dolabella were plotting, he said, "I am not much afraid of these well-fed,[599] long-haired fellows, but I rather fear those others, the pale and thin," meaning Cassius and Brutus.