Searching for “=+Caesar -Cicero”

But again losing resolution and changing his mind, he went down to the sea at Astura. And there he spent the night in dreadful and desperate calculations; he actually made up his mind to enter Caesar’s house by stealth, to slay himself upon the hearth, and so to fasten upon Caesar an avenging daemon. But a fear of tortures drove him from this course also; then, revolving in his mind many confused and contradictory purposes, he put himself in the hands of his servants to be taken by sea to Caieta, where he had lands and an agreeable retreat in summer time, when the breath of the Etesian winds is most pleasant.

Furthermore, the chief task of a good general is to force his enemies to give battle when he is superior to them, but not to be forced himself to do this when his forces are inferior, and by so doing Agesilaüs always kept himself unconquered; whereas in Pompey’s case, Caesar escaped injury at his hands when he was inferior to him, and forced him to stake the whole issue on a battle with his land forces, wherein Caesar was superior, thus defeating him and becoming at once master of treasures, provisions, and the sea,—advantages which would have brought his ruin without a battle had they remained in his enemy’s control.

Antony, on the contrary, was the son of a man who, though otherwise gifted, was yet no warrior, and could leave him no great legacy of reputation; and yet Antony had the courage to seek the power of Caesar, to which his birth gave him no claim, and to all that Caesar had wrought out before him he made himself the rightful successor. And so great strength did he attain, in reliance upon his own resources alone, that, after forcing a division of the empire into two parts, he chose one, and took the more splendid one of the two; and though absent himself, through his assistants and lieutenant-generals he defeated the Parthians many times, and drove the barbarous tribes about the Caucasus as far as the Caspian Sea.

Moreover, the gravest charge which is brought against Brutus, namely, that although his life was spared by the kindness of Caesar, together with the lives of all the fellow captives for whom he wished to intercede, and although Caesar held him a friend and honoured him above many, he struck down his preserver with his own hand,—this charge no one can bring against Dion. On the contrary, while he was a courtier and friend of Dionysius, he tried to set the state in order and help in preserving it; but when he had been banished from his country, wronged as a husband, and deprived of his property, he openly resorted to a war that was lawful and just.

However, apart from these considerations, the struggle against Dionysius was surely unlike that against Caesar. For Dionysius must have been despised by every one of his associates, devoted as he was to wine, dice, and women; but to plan the overthrow of Caesar, and not to fear the ability, power, and good fortune of the man whose very name robbed the kings of Parthia and India of their sleep, betokened an extraordinary spirit, and one which fear could never induce to remit its lofty purposes.

For Pompey met with opposition from the senate when his province was allotted to him, and when Caesar routed three hundred thousand Germans, Cato moved in the senate that he should be delivered up to those whom he had vanquished, and so bring upon his own head the punishment for his breach of faith; but the people turned contemptuously from Cato, sacrificed to the gods for fifteen days in honour of Caesar’s victory, and were full of joy.

And when all Rome was divided into three powerful parties, that of Pompey, that of Caesar, and that of Crassus (for Cato’s reputation was greater than his power, and men admired him more than they followed him), it was the thoughtful and conservative part of the city which attached itself to Pompey, the violent and volatile part which supported the hopes of Caesar,

Now Pompey did all this from an unbounded love of power; but to that ancient infirmity of Crassus, his avarice, there was now added a fresh and ardent passion, in view of the glorious exploits of Caesar, for trophies and triumphs. In these alone he thought himself inferior to Caesar, but superior in everything else. And his passion gave him no rest nor peace until it ended in an inglorious death and public calamities.

Thus coming in his hopes nearer and nearer to his goal, Nymphidius was not averse to having it said that he was the son of the Caius Caesar who succeeded Tiberius. For Caius, as it would appear, while still a young man, had been intimate with the mother of Nymphidius, a woman of comely appearance and a daughter of Callistus, Caesar’s freedman, by a hired sempstress.

But since Galba gave no heed to him whatever and put no confidence in his reports, he determined not to wait before making his attempt. And yet Clodius Celsus of Antioch, a man of good sense, who was well-disposed and faithful to him, tried to dissuade him, saying that in his opinion not a single precinct in Rome would give Nymphidius the title of Caesar. But many ridiculed Galba, and especially Mithridates of Pontus, who scoffed about his bald head and wrinkled face, and said that now the Romans thought him a great personage, but when they saw him they would regard all the days in which he had borne the title of Caesar as a disgrace to them.

Still, the very intensity of his assurance, his indefatigable labours, and his plain and simple way of living, won him a certain popularity among his fellow citizens, and his honours brought him increasing influence, so that he married into the illustrious family of the Caesars and became the husband of Julia, who was the aunt of that Caesar who in after times became greatest among the Romans, and in some degree, because of his relationship, made Marius his example, as I have stated in his Life.

Afterwards the fifth month was named Julius, from Julius Caesar, the conqueror of Pompey; and the sixth month Augustus, from the second Caesar, who was given that title. The seventh and eighth months bore for a short time the names Germanicus and Domitianus, which the emperor Domitian gave them; but when he was slain, they resumed their old names of September and October. Only the last two months, November and December, preserved the names derived from their position in the list just as they were at the outset.

They spared him no abuse nor insolence, declaring that he was betraying and ruining the opportunities and the cause of Caesar. Nay, some of them who were drunk came at night to his tent and demanded money for a journey, for they must go, they said, to Caesar, in order to denounce their commander.

On seeing certain wealthy foreigners in Rome carrying puppies and young monkeys about in their bosoms and fondling them, Caesar asked, we are told, if the women in their country did not bear children, thus in right princely fashion rebuking those who squander on animals that proneness to love and loving affection which is ours by nature, and which is due only to our fellow-men.

That political power which he had won by his own legitimate efforts, this he used in the interests of others illegally, thus weakening his own reputation in proportion as he strengthened them, so that before he was aware of it he was ruined by the very vigour and magnitude of his own power. And just as the strongest parts of a city’s defences, when they are captured by an enemy, impart to him their own inherent strength, so it was by Pompey’s power and influence that Caesar was raised up against the city, and Caesar overthrew and cast down the very man by whose aid he had waxed strong against the rest. And this was the way it came about.