History of Julius Caesar Vol. 1 of 2

1078

Cicero, Letters to Atticus, I. 12.

1079

Cicero, Letters to Atticus, I. 19.

1080

Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 1.

1081

Cicero, Letters to Atticus, I. 19.

1082

Suetonius, Cæsar, 50.

1083

Cicero, Letters to Quintus, I. 1, 11.

1084

Cæsar, when consul and dictator, declared many foreign cities free.

1085

It will be seen in the next chapter that Cæsar recognized as friends to the Roman people Auletes, king of Egypt, and Ariovistus, king of the Germans.

1086

Duumvirs, decemvirs, vigintivirs were the names given to magistrates who shared the same duties in boards of two, ten, or twenty. In the present case, however, the object was only to bind together the men of the greatest importance by a secret bond. Therefore the word triumvirate would be a misnomer.

1087

“He wished me to join these three intimate consular men.” (Cicero, Oration on the Consular Provinces, 17.)

1088

Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 57.

1089

Cicero, Familiar Letters, V. 12.

1090

Suetonius, Cæsar, 19. – Eutropius, VI. 14. – Plutarch, Cæsar, 13.

1091

Suetonius, Cæsar, 19.

1092

Plutarch, Cato, 26. – Suetonius, 19.

1093

“But will you say that we can only have the knights on our side by paying for them? What are we to do? Have we a choice of means?” (Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 1.)

1094

“Inde domum repetes toto comitante senatu,

Officium populi vix capiente domo.”

Ovid, Ex Ponto, IV. Epist. 4.

1095

Suetonius, Cæsar, 19.

1096

Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 1.

1097

Appian, Civil Wars, II. 10.

1098

Cicero, Epistle to Atticus, II. 3. – “When consul, he wished me to take part in the operations of his consulship. Without approving them, I felt nevertheless grateful to him for his deference.” (Oration on the Consular Provinces, 17.)

1099

Plutarch, Cæsar, 14. – Suetonius, Cæsar, 21.

1100

Plutarch, Cæsar, 14.

1101

Plutarch, Cato, 24.

1102

Plutarch, Cato, 59.

1103

Suetonius, Cæsar, 20.

1104

Titus Livius, IX. 8.

1105

Appian, Civil Wars, II. 7.

1106

Cicero, Familiar Letters, XIII. 4.

1107

Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 1.

1108

Epistles to Atticus, I. 18. – In allusion to a former law, we read as follows: “The senators who have discussed the present law shall be held, within ten days following the plebiscitum, to swear to maintain it before the questor, in the treasury, in open day, and taking for witnesses Jupiter and the gods Penates.” (Table of Bantia, Klenze, Philologische Abhandlungen, IV. 16-24.)

1109

Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 1.

1110

Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 2.

1111

Ateius Capito, Treatise on the Duties of the Senator, quoted by Aulus Gellius, IV. 10. – Valerius Maximus, II. 10, § 7.

1112

Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 4.

1113

Suetonius, Cæsar, 21.

1114

Appian, Civil Wars, II. 11.

1115

Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 6.

1116

The consuls, prætors, and generally all those who presided at an assembly of the people, or even who attended in quality of magistrates, had a right of veto, founded on popular superstition. This right was exercised by declaring that a celestial phenomenon had been observed by them, and that it was no longer permitted to deliberate. Jupiter darting thunder or rain, all treating on affairs with the people must be stopped; such was the text of the law, religious or political, published in 597. It was not necessary that it should thunder or rain, in fact; the affirmation of a magistrate qualified to observe the sky being enough. (Cicero, Oration for Sextius, 15. —Oration on the Consular Provinces, 19.) – (Asconius, In Piso, p. 9, ed. Orelli.) – (Orelli, Indices to his edition of Cicero, VIII. 126.) – (Index Legum, articles Laws Ælia and Fusia.)

1117

Valerius Maximus, III. vii. 6.

1118

Plutarch, Cato, 37.

1119

Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 7. – “The Campanian law contains a provision which compels the candidates to swear, in the assembly of the people, that they will never propose anything contrary to the Italian legislation upon property. All have sworn, except Laterensis, who preferred desisting from the candidature for the tribuneship to taking the oath, and much gratitude has been shown to him for it.” (Cicero, Epistles to Atticus, II. 18.)

1120

This appears from the words of Dio Cassius (XXXVIII. 1). Several scholars are unwilling to admit the existence of two agrarian laws; yet Cicero, in his letter to Atticus (II. 7), written in April, announces that the twenty commissioners are named. In this first law (Familiar Letters, XIII. 4), he mentions the ager of Volaterra, which was certainly not in Campania. In another letter of the beginning of May (Letters to Atticus, II. 16), he speaks of Campania for the first time, and says that Pompey had approved the first agrarian law. Finally, in that written in the month of June (Letters to Atticus, II. 18), he speaks of the oath taken to the agrarian laws. Suetonius (Cæsar, 20) and Appian (Civil Wars, II. 10) mention the Julian agrarian laws in the plural. Titus Livius (Epitome of Book CIII.) speaks of the leges agrariæ of Cæsar; and Plutarch (Cato, 38) says positively: “Elated with this victory, Cæsar proposed a new law, to share among the poor and indigent citizens nearly all the lands of Campania;” and previously, in chapter 36, the same author had said of Cæsar, that he proposed laws for the distribution of the lands to the poor citizens. Thus there were positively two laws published at an interval of some months; and if the object of the second was the distribution of the ager Campanus, the first had without doubt a more general character. Dio Cassius, after having related the proposal of the first agrarian law, in which Campania was excepted, says similarly: “Besides, the territory of Campania was given to those who had three children or more” (XXXVIII. 7).

1121

Cicero, Second Philippic, 15.

1122

Liber Coloniarum, edit. Lachmann, pp. 220, 235, 239, 259, 260. – Several of these colonies probably dated no farther back than the dictatorship of Cæsar.

1123

Suetonius, Cæsar, 20. – Velleius Paterculus, II. 44. – Appian, Civil Wars, II. 10. – “Capua mura ducta colonia Julia Felix, jussu imperatoris Cæsaris a xx. viris deducta.” (Liber Coloniarum, I. p. 231, edit. Lachmann.)

1124

Cicero, Second Philippic, 39.

1125

Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 1. – Cicero, Epistles to Atticus, II. 19.

1126

Cicero, Epistles to Atticus, II. 7.

1127

Cicero, Oration on the Consular Provinces, 17.

1128

Cicero, Familiar Letters, VIII. 10.

1129

Appian, Civil Wars, II. 13. —Scholiast of Bobbio on Cicero. – Cicero, Oration for Plancus, p. 261, edit. Orelli.

1130

Cicero, Oration for Plancus, 14.

1131

Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 1. – Suetonius, Cæsar, 20.

1132

Suetonius, Cæsar, 20. – Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 7. – Appian, II. 13.

1133

Suetonius, Cæsar, 20.

1134

Cicero, Second Oration on the Agrarian Law, 16. —Scholiast of Bobbio on Cicero’s Oration In Rege Alexandrino, p. 350, edit. Orelli. This Ptolemy Alexas, or Alexander, appears to have been a natural son of Alexander I., younger brother of Ptolemy Lathyrus, who is also called Ptolemy Soter II.; in this case he would be, though illegitimate, cousin of Ptolemy Auletes. He had succeeded Alexander II., legitimate son of Alexander I., who married his step-mother, Berenice, only legitimate daughter of Ptolemy Soter II.

1135

Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 16. – The King of Egypt gave nearly 6,000 talents (35 millions of francs) to Cæsar and Pompey. (Suetonius, Cæsar, 14.)

1136

Suetonius, Cæsar, 54. – Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 12. – Cæsar’s expressions (War of Alexandria, 33, and Civil Wars, III. 107) show the friendship of Ptolemy Auletes for the Romans.

1137

Cæsar, War in Gaul, I. 35. – Plutarch, Cæsar, 35. – Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 34.

1138

Suetonius, Cæsar, 20.

1139

Plutarch, Cato, 38. – “It was about the sixth hour, when, in the course of my speech in court for C. Antonius, my colleague, I deplored certain abuses which prevailed in the State, and which seemed to me to be closely allied to the case of my unfortunate client. Some ill-disposed persons reported my words to certain men of high position in different terms to those I had used; and on the same day, at the ninth hour, the adoption of Clodius was carried.” (Cicero, Oration for his House, 16.)

1140

Appian, Civil Wars, II. 14. – Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 12. – Plutarch, Pompey, 50. – Cicero, 39.

1141

Cicero, Oration for Sestius, loc. cit.

1142

Cicero, writing to Atticus about Cæsar’s first consulship, says: “Weak as he was then, Cæsar was stronger than the entire State.” (Letters to Atticus, VII. 9.)

1143

“Bibulus thought to render Cæsar an object of suspicion. He made him more powerful than before.” (Velleius Paterculus, II. 44.)

1144

Suetonius, Cæsar, 20.

1145

Cæsar rode an extraordinary horse, whose feet were shaped almost like those of man, the hoof being divided in such a way as to present the appearance of fingers. He had reared this horse, which had been foaled in his house, with great care, for the soothsayers had predicted the empire of the world to its master. Cæsar was the first who tamed it: before that time the animal had allowed no one to mount it. Finally, he erected a statue to its honour in front of the Temple of Venus Genetrix.” (Suetonius, Cæsar, 61.)

1146

“I am quite of opinion that the right of absent candidates to solicit the offices of the priesthood may be examined by the comitia, for there is a precedent for that. C. Marius, whilst in Cappadocia, was elected augur by the law Domitia, and no subsequent law has forbidden the course; for the Julian Law, the last on the subject of the priesthood, states: ‘He who is a candidate, or he whose right to become one has been examined.’” (Cicero, Letters to Brutus, I. 5.)

1147

Cicero, Oration against Piso, 37.

1148

Cicero, Oration on the Consular Provinces, 4. —Oration against Piso, 21.

1149

Cicero, Oration against Piso, 16; Letters to Atticus, V. 10, 16, 21. —First Philippic, 8.

1150

“You have obtained,” says he, addressing Piso, “a consular province with no other limits than those of your cupidity, in contravention of the law of your son-in-law. In fact, by a law of Cæsar’s, as just as it is salutary, free nations used to enjoy a full and entire liberty.” (Cicero, Oration against Piso, 16.)

1151

Cicero, Oration against Piso, 25; Familiar Letters, II. 17; Letters to Atticus, VI. 7. – “I will add, that if the ancient right and antique usage were still in force, I should not have had to send in my accounts till after I had discoursed about them, and had them audited with good humour, and the formalities that our intimacy justifies. What I would have done in Rome according to the old fashion, I ought, according to the Julian law, to have done in my province: send in my accounts on the spot, and only deposit in the treasury an exact copy of them. I was obliged to follow the provisions of the law. The accounts, duly audited and compared, were to be deposited in two towns, and I chose, in the terms of the law, the two most important – Laodicea and Apamea… I come to the point of the customary presents. You must know that I had only included in my list the military tribunes, the prefects, and the officers of my house (contubernales). I even made a blunder. I thought I was allowed any latitude in point of time. Subsequently I learnt that the request ought to be sent in during the thirty days allowed for the settling the accounts. Happily, all is safe as far as the centurions are concerned, and the officers of the household of the military tribunes – for the law is silent in regard to the latter. (Cicero, Familiar Letters, V. 20.)

1152

Dio Cassius, XLIII. 25.

1153

“I say nothing about the golden crown that has been so long a torture to you, in your uncertainty as to whether you ought to demand it or not. In fact, the law of your son-in-law forbad them to give it or you to receive it, unless your triumph had been granted you.” (Cicero, Oration against Piso, 37.)

1154

Cicero, Oration against Piso, 37; Letters to Atticus, V. 10, 16.

1155

“Take notice, I beg you, that I paid into the hands of the farmers of the revenues at Ephesus twenty-two millions of sestertii, a sum to which I have a perfect right, and that Pompey laid hands on the whole. I have made up my mind on the subject – whether wisely or unwisely matters not.” (Cicero, Oration against Piso, xxxvii. 16.)

1156

Cicero, Oration against Piso, 21.

1157

Cicero, Oration on the Consular Provinces, 2, 3, 4.

1158

“Is there any position more disgraceful than that of a senator, who goes on a mission without the slightest authorisation on the part of the State? It was this kind of mission that I should have abolished during my consulship, even with the consent of the Senate, notwithstanding the apparent advantages it held out, had it not been for the senseless opposition of a tribune. At any rate I caused its duration to be shortened: formerly it had no limit; now I have reduced it to a year.” (Cicero, On Laws, III. 8.)

1159

“Moreover, I think that the Julian law has defined the duration of free embassies: nor will it be easy to extend it.” (Cicero, Letters to Atticus, XV. 11. – Orelli, Index Legum, p. 192.)

1160

Cicero, Oration for Sestius, 64. “Liberty torn from nations and individuals on whom it had been conferred, and whose right had been, by virtue of the Julian law, so precisely ensured against all hostile attacks.” (Oration against Piso, xxxvii. 16.)

1161

Cicero, Familiar Letters, VIII. 8. – Several of its chapters have been preserved in the Digest, XLVIII. tit. XI. It is generally supposed that the fragments inscribed on a tablet of brass in the Museum of Florence belong to the same law. They have been published by Maffei, Museum Veronese, p. 365, No. 4, and commented on by the celebrated Marini, in his work on the Monuments of the Fratres Arvales, I. pp. 39, 40, note 44.

1162

Suetonius, Cæsar, 42.

1163

Cicero, Oration for Rabirimus Postumus, 4, 5.

1164

Fragments of the Julian law, De Repetundis, preserved in the Digest, XLVIII. tit. XI.

The law is directed against those who, holding a magistracy, an embassy, or any other office, or forming part of the attendants of these functionaries, receive money.

They may receive money to any amount from their cousins, their still nearer relatives, or their wives.

The law includes those who have received money: For speaking in the Senate or any public assembly; for doing their duty or absenting themselves from it; for refusing to obey a public order or for exceeding it; for pronouncing judgment in a criminal or a civil case, or for not pronouncing it; for condemning or acquitting; for awarding or withdrawing the subject of a suit; for adjudging or taking an object in litigation; for appointing a judge or arbitrator, changing him, ordering him to judge, or for not appointing him or changing him, and not ordering him to judge; for causing a man to be imprisoned, put in irons, or set at liberty; for accusing or not accusing; for producing or suppressing a witness; for recognising as complete an unfinished public work; for accepting wheat for the use of the State without testing its good quality; for taking upon himself the maintenance of the public buildings without a certificate of their good condition; for enlisting a soldier or discharging him.

All that has been given to the proconsul or prætor contrary to the provisions of the present law, cannot become his by right of possession.

Sales and leases are declared null and void which have been made, for a high or a low price, with a view to right of possession by a third.

The magistrates are to abstain from all extortion, and receive as salary but 100 pieces of gold each year.

The action will lie equally against the heirs of the accused, but only during the year succeeding his death.

No one who has been condemned under this law can be either judge, accuser, or witness.

The penalties are exile, banishment to an island, or death, according to the gravity of the offence.

1165

Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 8.

1166

De alternis consiliis rejiciendis. (Cicero, Oration against Vatinius, 11. —Scholiast of Bobbio, pp. 321, 323, edit. Orelli.)

1167

“The citizens who, not being of your order, cannot, thanks to the Cornelian laws, challenge more than three judges.” (Cicero, Second Prosecution of Verres, II. 31.)

1168

Suetonius, Cæsar, 28.

1169

Cicero, Familiar Letters, XIII. 35. “Pompeius Strabo, father of Pompey the Great, re-peopled Comum. Some time after, Scipio established 3,000 inhabitants there; and, finally, Cæsar sent 5,000 colonists, the most distinguished of whom were 500 Greeks.” (Strabo, cxix.)

1170

Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 18. – Dio Cassius, XXVIII. 8.

1171

Dio Cassius, XXVIII. 8. – Orelli, Index Legum, 178.

1172

Cicero, in his speech against Vatinius, chap. 6, while reproaching him for having disregarded the auspices, exclaims, “I ask you first, Did you refer the matter to the Senate, as Cæsar did?”

“It is true that Cæsar’s acts were, for the benefit of peace, confirmed by the Senate.” (Cicero, Second Philippic, 39.)

1173

Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 7.

1174

Cæsar conducted himself with discretion in his consulship.” (Plutarch, Crassus, 17.)

1175

“Cæsar published laws that were worthy, I will not say of a consul, but of the most reckless of tribunes.” (Plutarch, Cæsar, 14.)

1176

Cicero, Letters to Atticus, VI. 1. – Appian, Civil Wars, II. 13.

1177

Pliny, Natural History, XXXIII. 5. Drumann and Mommsen, like ourselves, refuse their belief to the assertion of Suetonius.

1178

Plutarch, Lucullus, 9.

1179

Suetonius, Cæsar, 22. – Plutarch, Cæsar, 14.

1180

Appian, Civil Wars, II. 14.

1181

Plutarch, Crassus, 17.

1182

Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 8. – Suetonius, Cæsar, 22.

1183

Suetonius, Cæsar, 22.

1184

Dio Cassius, XL. 34.

1185

“At the gladiatorial exhibition, the giver of the show and all his attendants were received with hisses. At the games in honour of Apollo, the tragedian Diphilus made a pointed allusion to our friend Pompey in the lines —

‘’Tis through our woes that thou art great,’

and was called upon to repeat the words a thousand times. Further on, the whole assembly cheered him when he said,

‘A time shall come, when thou thyself shall weep

That power of thine so deadly’ —

for they are lines that one might have said were written on purpose by an enemy of Pompey. The words

‘If nought, nor law, nor virtue, hold thee back,’

were received with a tempest of acclamation. When Cæsar arrived, he met with a cold reception. Curio, on the other hand, who followed him, was saluted with a thousand cheers, as Pompey used to be in the prosperous times of the Republic. Cæsar was annoyed, and sent off a courier post haste to Pompey, who is, they say, at Capua.” (Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 19.)

1186

Suetonius, Cæsar, 9.

1187

Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 19.

1188

“Bibulus is being praised to the skies, I know not why; but he is being extolled as the one only man who, by temporising, has restored the State. Pompey, my idol Pompey, has been his own ruin, as I own with tears to-day; he has no one left who takes his side from affection. I am afraid that they will find it necessary to resort to intimidation. For my own part, I forbear, on the one hand, to combat their views on account of my ancient friendship with them, and, on the other, my antecedents prevent my approving of what they are about; I preserve a middle course. The humour of the people is best seen in the theatres.” (Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 19, 20, 21.)

1189

“He keeps prudently in the background, but hopes at a safe distance to witness their shipwreck.” (Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 7.)

1190

Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 13.

1191

Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 17.

1192

Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 20, 21.

1193

Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 11.

1194

Cicero, Letters to Atticus, II. 24.

1195

Cicero, Oration against Vatinius, II. – Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 9.

1196

Scholiast of Bobbio, On Cicero’s Oration against Vatinius, p. 330, edit. Orelli. – Appian, Civil Wars, II. 2 and 12.