loftier motives, and what portion of his conduct was owing to the baser impulses of selfish ambition.

The interference of Sylla was of much advantage to Cæsar, as it removed him from the sphere of action at a time when his exertions would have been fruitless, and gave him leisure for cultivating his favourite science of oratory. He made a single campaign in the forces sent against the king of Bithynia, during which period it is said that he was guilty of vices abhorrent even to the licentious habits of Roman nobility. Such stories rest, however, upon the doubtful authority of contemporary rivals, or the hearsay of partial historians. During the flower of his youth, Caesar had no opportunity of distinguishing himself. A crowd of brilliant competitors for the favour of the public, dazzled the popular imagination, and filled the world with the fame of the arms of Rome. Pompey, his senior only by a few years, was at the height of his glory, and in a state where the personal advantage of the general was allowed to take precedence of the well-being of the state. The commander who would enjoy the greatest measure of influence, must first secure himself against the efforts of his rivals. Slowly, but surely, and by the exercise of arts which the success was deemed sufficient to justify, did Cæsar make his way on the thorny paths of public life. A quæstorship in Spain was succeeded by his being elected to the office of ædile at Rome, which took place B. C. 65, and when he was in the thirty-fifth year of his age.

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No employment could have been more favourable to his hopes, as it him the opportunity of indulging that taste for shows and pastimes which had now become a passion with the citizens of Rome. In all parts of the city magnificent buildings satisfied the taste, and the exhibition of gladiators and combats of wild beasts, pleased the brutal passions of the multitude. His year of office cost him an immense sum of money, but it was more expensive to the faction in power, whose ruin may be dated from this period.

Cæsar's first attempt to gain an important share in the management of public affairs failed: but in the following year he was elected Pontifex Maximus, or chief-priest, the peculiar constitution of Rome recognising neither an hereditary priesthood, nor the existence of the hierarchy as an independent order in the state. The salary of this office was considerable, but the influence which it gave was of the highest order when filled by a man of rare sagacity and unbounded ambition.

Anxious to obtain a reputation for moderate aims and humane counsels, at a time when plotters were always extravagant, and victors always relentless, Cæsar advised that the actors in the Catiline conspiracy, which occurred while he was prætor, should be punished only by being banished from Rome, and kept under the strictest surveillance. But such a policy was not in accordance with the wishes of Cicero, who, as consul, was then powerful alike by his position, and the force of his commanding oratory-and it was with difficulty that Cæsar escaped personal outrage at the hands of the opposing party. The singular address displayed by Cæsar in all the various transactions in which he had been engaged, and the hold which it was perceived he had acquired over the public mind, began seriously to alarm the aristocracy. It was evident that his certain elevation, at no distant date, to the consulship, was a thing to be dreaded, and they wisely, as it was thought, took instant measures to check his career by declaring him incapable of entering on the performance of his official duties. But this proceeding was manifestly too

unwise and illegal to serve any other purpose than the very opposite to that which was intended. Cæsar continued quietly to fulfil the duties of his station; and when the senate, irritated at this contempt of their authority, prepared to compel obedience by force, the people offered him their aid against his enemies. Their services were not needed, for the senate finding themselves in a false position, not only abrogated their decrees, but actually thanked him for having resisted them.

Caring nothing for human life when its sacrifice was serviceable to his designs, Cæsar was capable of curbing his fiercest resentments when revenge would have been impolitic. Thus, when the licentious Clodius, in the garb of a female, obtained admission to the temple in which the wife of Cæsar, with other Roman matrons, was celebrating the sacred rites of the Bona Dea, Cæsar, on the affair being disclosed, divorced his wife, whom he had married after the death of Cornelia, on the ground of the profanation to which she had been unconsciously subjected; but at the same time he exerted all his influence to protect Clodius from punishment, as he saw he could be made use of in furthering his schemes of advancement.

Cæsar was forty years of age before he had an opportunity of distinguishing himself in the field, and his good fortune still attending him, he reduced a revolt which had broken out in his government of southern Spain, and returned with all speed to Rome, to secure, by a personal canvass, his elevation to the consulship. The greatest opposition was offered on the occasion, but from no motives of patriotism. The aristocracy hated him on account of the towering influence of his genius, which assured them of the presence of a master. It was not the rule which they resisted, but the rival which they feared. They cared not for the liberties of Rome, but for the preservation of their own oppressive domination. Had they been united among themselves, they had presented Cæsar but a choice of submission or the grave. But they had lost even the common virtue of mutual esteem, and fell less by the power of the conqueror than by the weight of their own vices.

Pompey and Crassus might have proved troublesome competitors, the one from his military fame and natural expectation of honour and advancement, and the other from his immense riches and the efforts of his intriguing spirit. But Cæsar contrived to persuade them that it was their common interest to destroy the power of the senate, and that they were essential to each other. After much negociation they both fell into the trap which had been laid for them; Pompey received the daughter of Cæsar in marriage, and it was agreed, that they should take no measure in the government of the state without consulting each other. On these terms it was resolved that their whole power should be exerted in obtaining the consulship for Cæsar.

Against such a combination, it was impossible for the senate to make effectual head; but they manifested their dislike of the new consul in an intelligible manner, by nominating as his colleague one Bibulus in the room of Lucceius, whom Cæsar, on account of his worth, wished to have associated with him in the chief magistracy. But this scheme eventually failed of its expected results, for the unfortunate Bibulus, after trying in vain to impede the measures of Cæsar, finding that no other remedies were available, shut himself up in his house, and declared that the gods had decided that the auguries should be unfavourable all through the year. It was the good fortune of Cæsar to be as much advantaged by the folly of his adversaries, as by

the efforts of his own wisdom, of which this notable expedient of Bibulus was not the least striking instance.

The credit of Pompey was now ruined by the coalition which he had formed with his great rival, and Cæsar ordered all matters at his pleasure. The citizens he gratified by a distribution of public lands, and by the indignities which he imposed upon their hated tyrants, the senate. Cicero, whose adverse influence was most to be dreaded in the forum, was driven into exile, and all circumstances conspired to render Cæsar the sovereign master of the destinies of the world. At the expiration of his year of office, the senate made another attempt to annihilate his supremacy; but the effort was fruitless, for in addition to the usual government of a province, he succeeded in obtaining an edict by which he was invested with absolute rule for five years over the provinces of Gallia Cisalpina, or North Italy, Illyricum, and Gallia Transalpina, a tract of country equal in extent to an empire, and peopled by hardy races of warlike barbarians. The time had now arrived when the unequalled talents of Cæsar as a general were about to be called into action. The Helvetians, or modern Swiss, had emigrated from their own mountains, and in a vast horde were pouring down upon Geneva with the intention of there crossing the Rhone, or settling in Southern Gaul on the intelligence reaching Rome, Cæsar hastened to the spot, cut the bridge, and raised entrenchments to prevent their passage. Foiled in this attempt, the Helvetians next tried the influence of negociation, but Cæsar was resolved to employ no arbiter but the sword. In pursuance of this plan, he hastened back to Cisalpine Gaul, where he raised reinforcements, and with 30,000 troops, crossed the Alps, and fell upon the Helvetians during the passage of their army across the Arar (Saone). Having killed or dispersed a great number, he next marched in pursuit of the main body, which he continued to follow for a fortnight, till his provisions failing, he retraced his steps, followed in turn by the Helvetians, who now offered battle. This was playing their enemy's game, and the result of the conflict, which was of the most desperate character, showed that Cæsar had not unwisely relied upon his own genius, and the valour of his soldiers. A dreadful slaughter was made on the field; and after the lapse of three days, the Romans marched in pursuit of the surviving_Helvetians, who, to the number of 130,000 souls, were now at his mercy. They were allowed to return home and cultivate their own lands, with the exception of one tribe, amounting to 6,000 men, who were all put to death, or sold as slaves. The progress of British conquest in India, furnishes an exact type of the career of the Romans under Cæsar in Gaul and Germany. One victory naturally led the way to another. To secure any portion of the country they were compelled from necessity to conquer all. The quarrels of their allies they were obliged to make their own, and the natural course of events soon converted protection into dominion. The Ædui, a friendly nation of Gaul, complained that the Germans beyond the Rhine, men of gigantic stature and amazing strength, had committed great outrages upon them; Cæsar required them to desist; but the German monarch, like other potentates of modern days, insisted upon his right to do what he liked with his own. It was accordingly resolved to crush him. But the contest was undertaken with great reluctance by the Roman army, who dreaded to encounter the formidable enemy; and it was with great difficulty that Cæsar succeeded in overcoming the fears of his soldiers. After some delay, occasioned by the unfavour

able predictions of the German matrons, the two armies met, the barbarians being routed with fearful carnage.

The following year Cæsar marched against the various tribes of the Belgæ, a powerful nation of German origin, who occupied the country between the Rhine and the Seine. These, alarmed at the prospect of subjugation, had formed an alliance amongst themselves to the number of 300,000 fighting men; and had they but remained true to each other, the issue of the war might have been very different. After besieging Cæsar in his camp for some time, they broke up, and resolved to fight each in their own country-a resolve which proved their destruction, as the Romans were thereby enabled to engage and destroy them in detail. One of the nations, single-handed, had well-nigh inflicted irreparable loss upon the invaders, by attacking them before any notice had been given of their approach, and it was only by the exercise of the most daring courage, that Cæsar was enabled to arrest the flight of his troops. The vengeance of the conquerors after the battle was in proportion to the extent of their fears during its continuance, and of the unhappy vanquished, but 500 were spared out of 50,000 who began the fight. The capture of a strong-hold to which another nation had retreated, and of whom 53,000 were sold into slavery, finished the campaign.

Honours and congratulations were showered upon Cæsar by the senate, who dared not offend the master of a devoted army, and the idol of the Roman people. In the ensuing year he marched against the Veneti, a maritime people occupying the country round about what is now called Vannes, in Brittany, and who had given great offence by refusing succours to the Romans, and imprisoning the ambassadors sent to them. A strong confederacy was formed against the Romans, but it was speedily broken by the result of a great naval engagement, in which Cæsar was as usual victorious. To terrify other states from following their example, he put to death all the chief men of the Veneti, and sold the rest as slaves.

The history of Cæsar's exploits for the next five years is one unbroken series of victories obtained over the Gauls, often desperately contested, and followed in many instances by the infliction of fearful cruelties. The clemency of Cæsar, which has been so much extolled, was only exercised when nothing was to be gained by severity. He could sacrifice whole hecatombs of human beings without a sigh of regret, when their existence stood in the way of his ambition. At the end of his ninth year of government, the country was tranquillised, and Cæsar had leisure to turn his attention to the state of affairs at Rome. The senate, influenced by Cicero and Pompey, attempted to reduce him to the condition of a private citizen, by ordering him to give up his army within a certain day, and come in person to Rome, to conduct his canvass for the consulship, or failing in this, he was to be proclaimed an enemy to the state, With a want of honesty perfectly inexcusable, they at the same time permitted Pompey, who had now entirely broken with Cæsar, and was his rival for the possession of the supreme authority, to retain the control of the army under his command, and which was in fact composed of the forces which had been raised for the reinforcement of the Gallic legions. It needed but slender sagacity to predict the consequences: after a passionate but unavailing remonstrance, Cæsar crossed the Rubicon, a small stream which formed the southern boundary of his government, and marched at the head of his veteran troops to Rome. This movement threw the senate into confusion. It was idle to expect that the raw forces at their command could withstand the practised

warriors whose lives had been spent in the camp, and the roll of whose victories outnumbered their years. Some trifling show of opposition was raised, and then the senate, with Pompey, and such of the soldiers as adhered to him, fled into Spain, leaving Rome at the mercy of Cæsar, who entered it without resistance.

After receiving the peaceful submission of the capital, Cæsar departed for Spain, to encounter the forces of his great rival. A single campaign sufficed for the subjection of that important province; and in the following year the defeat of Pompey, at the battle of Pharsalia, completed the ruin of the senate. Pompey, who fled to Egypt after the defeat of his army, was followed by Cæsar, who gave him not an instant to rally any portion of his forces; but all further trouble on this score was saved him by the murder of Pompey, which ensued almost immediately upon his landing. This circumstance gave Cæsar leisure to interfere with the affairs of the Egyptians, whose king, Ptolemy, had died, leaving his widow, the celebrated Cleopatra, in possession of the throne. The charms of this peerless woman conquered the affections of the great Roman, and an intimacy ensued, which led to the birth of a son, and was ended only with the life of Cæsar. In the following year Cæsar defeated the king of Pontus, Pharnaces, who had inflicted great cruelties upon the Roman subjects in Asia, and returned to Rome, where he was created dictator for one year, with the succession to the consulship. During the winter he passed into Africa, and defeated Scipio, who had rallied the party of Pompey. In the following year, B. C. 45, he was nominated, for the third time, sole consul and dictator, and fought his last campaign in Spain, against the son of Pompey. The slaughter of 30,000 men in a decisive battle, put a final end to the hopes of that party; and Pompey being taken prisoner, was beheaded on the spot, to avoid all possible uneasiness for the future.

"He carried Arsinoe, whom he had taken in this war, to Rome, and she walked in his triumph in chains of gold; but immediately after that solemnity he set her at liberty. He did not permit her, however, to return into Egypt, lest her presence should occasion new troubles, and frustrate the regulations he had made in that kingdom. She chose the province of Asia for her residence; at least it was there Anthony found her after the battle of Philippi, and caused her to be put to death, at the instigation of her sister Cleopatra."

On his return to Rome, Cæsar was created consul for two years, and dictator for life. He had now demolished the government of the nobles: but it was not destined that he should live to create a system on its ruins. His enemies, warned by too frequent experience of the danger of opposing him in the field, resolved to employ the surer art of the assassin; and a conspiracy being entered into by nearly all the leading men in the state, he was murdered by them in the senate-house, on the 15th of March, B. C. 44, in the fiftysixth year of his age.

The military fame of Cæsar, great as it undoubtedly is, would not have procured for his memory the honours which have been awarded to it by posterity, had not the skill of the warrior been united in his person with the genius of the writer and the sagacity of the statesman. His writings are, to this hour, models for the instruction of the student, and the wisdom of his civil administration has been the theme of unqualified admiration. Cæsar was one of those rare spirits whose whole faculties were of incalculable value to mankind, but whose mission is never willingly acknowledged.