Dion Cassius (38. c. 17) states that Cæsar was outside of the city with his army, ready to march to his province, at the time when Clodius proposed the bill of penalties against him. Cicero says the same (Pro Sestio, c. 18). Cæsar, according to Dion, was not in favour of the penalties contained in the bill; but he probably did not exert himself to save Cicero. Pompeius, who had presided at the comitia in which Clodius was adrogated into a Plebeian family, in order to qualify him to be a tribune, treated Cicero with neglect (Life of Pompeius, c. 46). Cæsar owed Cicero nothing. Pompeius owed him much. And Cicero deserved his punishment.
[478] Cæsar's Gallic campaign began B.C. 58.
He carried on the war actively for eight years, till the close of B.C. 51. But he was still proconsul of Gallia in the year B.C. 50. Plutarch has not attempted a regular narrative of Cæsar's campaigns, which would have been foreign to his purpose (see the Life of Alexander, c. 1); nor can it be attempted in these notes. The great commander has left in his Commentary on the Gallic War an imperishable record of his subjugation of Gaul.
[479] Plutarch here, after his fashion, throws in a few anecdotes without any regard to the chronological order.
[480] Massalia, an ancient Greek settlement, now Marseilles, was called Massilia by the Romans. The siege of Massalia is told by Cæsar (Civil War, ii. 1, &c.). It took place after Pompeius had fled from Brundisium.
[481] The story of Scæva is told by Cæsar (Civil War, iii. 53). The missiles were arrows. As to the exact number of arrows that the brave centurion Scæva received in his shield, see the note in Oudendorp's Cæsar. Scæva was promoted to the first class of centurions (Suetonius. Cæsar, 68).
[482] Cordoba or Cordova in Hispania Bætica. Cæsar must therefore have been subject to these attacks during his quæstorship, or at least his prætorship in Spain.
Of Cæsar's endurance and activity, Suetonius also (Cæsar, 57) has preserved several notices.
[483] Kaltwasser translates this: "He travelled with such speed that he did not require more than eight days to reach the Rhone after leaving Rome;" as if this was his habit. But Kaltwasser is mistaken.
[484] See the Life of Pompeius, c. 10.