A Friend of Cæsar

A Tale of the Fall of the Roman Republic

Time, 50–47 B.C.

By William Stearns Davis

"Others better may mould the life-breathing brass of the image,
And living features, I ween, draw from the marble, and better
Argue their cause in the court; may mete out the span of the heavens,
Mark out the bounds of the poles, and name all the stars in their turnings.
Thine 'tis the peoples to rule with dominion—this, Roman, remember!—
These for thee are the arts, to hand down the laws of the treaty,
The weak in mercy to spare, to fling from their high seats the haughty."

—VERGIL, Æn. vi. 847-858.

New York
Grosset & Dunlap Publishers
1900

To My Father

William Vail Wilson Davis

Who Has Taught Me More
Than All My Books

Preface