Caesar's Later Career.
“The foremost man of all this world.
”Shakespeare.
Meanwhile events had been moving on at Rome. With Crassus dead, Caesar and Pompey were left in the enjoyment of almost absolute authority. They had been friends from youth, but none the less rivals, and the death of Julia (B. C. 54) sundered the last ties that bound them together. In 52 Pompey had been made sole consul and found himself at the head of a party which, under cover of the constitution, was determined to destroy Caesar that it might retain the power which his reforms threatened to place in worthier hands.“Caesar could bear no superior, Pompey no equal.
”Lucan.
Caesar's proconsulship of Gaul would expire at the end of B. C. 49. He wished to run for a second consulship in B. C. 48. The senate resolved to prevent this, and commanded him to resign his office and disband his army several months before the expiration of his term. If they could once get him to Rome as a private citizen without an army, they knew they could crush him. Caesar knew this too, and refused to obey the decree unless Pompey should also disband his troops. Pompey would have been willing to agree to this fair proposition, but his friends would not permit him, and were bent on destroying Caesar. Naturally the charge of false play was made on both sides, and the strife continued until Caesar was finally declared a public enemy. He therefore crossed the Rubicon, a small stream which formed the boundary of his province and the limit of his authority, and began to march towards Rome. He took but a single legion with him and continued his efforts to come to an understanding with theOptimates, having hopes of a compromise. He made a speech to his soldiers, explaining the situation, and was assured of their enthusiastic support. Labienus alone deserted him, corrupted, it is said, by Roman gold.
Caesar's march through Italy was like a triumphal procession; the cities opened their gates to him and he was everywhere hailed with enthusiasm. Among the Optimates there was nothing but consternation and fear. They had pinned their faith to Pompey, who had boasted that he had but to stamp his foot on the ground and legions would spring from the earth ready to obey him. He had vastly overrated himself (as was his wont), and had no conception of Caesar's power and genius. Cicero well sums up the situation in a letter to his friend Atticus: "The consuls are helpless. There has been no levy. With Caesar pressing forward and our general doing nothing, the men will not come to be enrolled. Pompey is prostrate, without courage, without purpose, without force, without energy." Pompey had been looked upon by his partisans as almost divine. He had been peculiarly fortunate throughout his career and had made a great military reputation by assuming the laurels that others had won. Mommsen says of him: "He was radically a commonplace man, formed by nature to make a good corporal, but forced by circumstances to be a general." Now that he was confronted by a really serious difficulty and by a really able man, he was paralyzed.
Pompey with his forces and accompanied by the senators fled in a panic to Brundisium and sailed across the Adriatic to Epirus. Caesar meanwhile continued his victorious advance, and in sixty days was master of Italy. Then he went to Spain, and before autumn closed had met and defeated all opposition there. Returning to Rome he made preparations to follow Pompey. Many prominentOptimates had fallen into his hands, but he let them all go free, to their own great amazement and to Caesar's eternal praise. In a letter he says: "I will conquer after a new fashion and fortify myself in the possession of the power I acquire by generosity and mercy."
Caesar followed Pompey across the sea from Brundisium, transporting his army in two divisions. He encountered considerable difficulty on account of storms and the lack of ships. After much skirmishing, anxiety, and suffering (on Caesar's part), owing to scarcity of food and supplies, he fought a battle at Pharsalia in Thessaly on Aug. 9, B. C. 48. Before the battle Pompey's officers felt so sure of victory that a rich banquet was spread awaiting their return from the field. In numbers and equipment Pompey was much superior, and with him was all the wealth and respectability of Rome. He had 45,000 infantry and 5000 cavalry against Caesar's 22,000 and 1000, respectively; but he was overwhelmingly defeated and the battle ended in a terrible panic and great slaughter, in which 15,000 men lost their lives. As Caesar viewed the slain he said sadly: "They would have it so. After all that I had done for my country, I, Gaius Caesar, should have been condemned as a criminal if I had not appealed to my army."
Pompey fled for his life and took ship to Egypt and was there murdered by the king, who hoped thus to win Caesar's favor. When Caesar arrived there, however, a few days later, and Pompey's head was presented to him, he is said to have turned away from the sight with horror and grief. He now overcame all remaining opposition in several short and brilliant campaigns. The first of these was in Asia Minor, where he conquered so easily that he reported it to the senate in the words that have since become famous: "Veni, vidi, vici." By the battle of Thapsus in Africa (B. C. 46) and that of Munda in Spain (B. C. 45), the Pompeian party was finally crushed.
Caesar now returned to Rome, where he was made imperator — possessing the entire imperium, or military dominion of Rome, not of a single colony or province merely — and perpetual dictator (dictator perpetuo), which offices clothed him with all the political authority of the state. By the powers thus conferred he laid the foundations of the Imperial constitution, which was afterwards (B. C. 30) set in operation by his grand-nephew and adopted son, Octavianus, later known as Augustus. This scheme of government eventually became (as was possibly foreseen from the start) an hereditary monarchy, under the name and form of a republic. During the short period of Caesar's rule he continued the good work of his first consulship and carried a series of measures of wise and practical statesmanship, such as the reform of the calendar, the regulation of the administrative system, and the policy of checks upon the abuses of the money power. He also planned extensive military expeditions against Parthia, Scythia, and Germany, and large public works and improvements, such as draining the Pomptine marshes and cutting through the isthmus of Corinth. With characteristic energy he accomplished much in a very short time.
But the possession of this exalted authority involved the utter overthrow of the constitution and necessarily excited alarm and jealousy among patriots and demagogues alike. Rumors were abroad that Caesar was seeking to be king, a name detested at Rome since the foundation of the republic. His rivals were jealous, and not a few friends were disappointed at not having received as large favors as they thought they deserved. Many of his former enemies were bitter against him, because he had been magnanimous enough to forgive them. These feelings culminated in a conspiracy against his life. The leaders were Cassius, aviolent and fearless man driven mad by jealousy and baffled ambition; and Marcus Brutus, who had no better friend than Caesar, but who fancied that he must emulate his ancestor, Brutus the first consul, who expelled the Tarquins. Caesar received many warnings of what was going on, but disregarded them all with his usual indifference to danger. The deed was consummated in the senate-house on the Ides of March, B. C. 44. The great dictator was struck down by false friends and fell, pierced with wounds, at the foot of Pompey's statue. This dastardly act received the condemnation it deserved, and few have dared to defend it on the ground of patriotism. Those concerned in it all died violent deaths soon after. Both Brutus and Cassius committed suicide, the latter stabbing himself with the very dagger which he had used against Caesar.1
