History of Julius Caesar Vol. 2 of 2

Cæsar’s Habits when in Campaign.

We are astonished, in reading the “Commentaries”, at the ease with which Cæsar repaired every year from Gaul into Italy, or into Illyria. There must have been relays established on the principal lines along which he had to travel, not only for his own use, but also for the couriers who carried dispatches. We have seen that, in 696, Cæsar passed in eight days from the banks of the Tiber to Geneva. According to Suetonius, he travelled 100 miles a day, or 150 kilometres in twenty-four hours, which makes a little more than six kilometres an hour. The couriers took twenty-eight or thirty days to go from England to Rome. Plutarch informs us that, in order to lose no time, Cæsar travelled by night, sleeping in a chariot or litter.656 By day he had with him a secretary, who wrote under his dictation, and he was followed by a soldier who carried his sword. In his military marches he went sometimes on horseback, but most frequently he preceded the soldiers on foot, and, with head uncovered, he gave no care either to sun or rain.657

In the midst of the most perilous enterprises, he found time to correspond with men of influence, and even to read poems which Cicero sent him, to whom he sent back his opinions and criticisms;658 his mind was incessantly occupied with the events which were passing in Rome.

Consulship of Pompey and Crassus.

IV. At the beginning of the year 699, the consuls were not yet nominated. In such circumstances, the Senate appointed interreges, who, invested with the consular powers, succeeded each other in office every five days. It was by favour of this interregnum that the comitia were held. The result was foreseen. Besides their immense clientelle, Pompey and Crassus were assured of the support of Cæsar, who, as we have said, had taken care to send on leave a great number of his legionaries to vote.659 They arrived in charge of Publius Crassus, son of the triumvir, whose exploits in Aquitaine had given him celebrity.

The only candidate of the previous year, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, excited by Cato, his brother-in-law, persisted in his candidature to the last moment. Starting before daybreak to the comitia, with M.Cato and many of his clients, he and his followers were exposed to violent attacks. The slave who walked before him with a lantern in his hand was killed, and Cato wounded. Domitius was seized with terror, and sought shelter in his house. The interrex who presided over the comitia proclaimed, without opposition, Crassus and Pompey consuls.

The arrangements concluded at Lucca had thus succeeded, and the ambition of the three eminent personages who absorbed public attention was satisfied; but the aim of this ambition varied according to their several tempers. Crassus only desired the command of an army, in order to increase his reputation and his immense riches. Pompey, without deep convictions, placed his vanity in being the first man of the Republic. Cæsar, the head of the popular party, aspired to power, in order, above all other considerations, to ensure the triumph of his cause. The way which would offer itself to his mind was not to excite civil war, but to obtain his own nomination several times to the consulship; the great citizens who had preceded him had followed no other way, and the there is a natural tendency to take for our example that which has been successful in the past. The glory acquired in Gaul assured Cæsar beforehand of the public favour, which was to carry him again to the first magistracy. Nevertheless, to dispel the obstacles continually raised by a powerful party, it was necessary to remove hostile competitors from important offices; to gain the support of distinguished men, such as Cicero; and, as everything was venal, to buy, with the produce of the booty he made by war, the consciences which were for sale. This course, seconded by Pompey and Crassus, promised success.

Pompey, always under the influence of his wife’s charms, appeared to rest satisfied with the part which was assigned to him. Had he been free from all engagement, and obeyed his own instincts, he would have embraced the cause of the Senate rather than that which he was sustaining; for men of a nature so vain as his, prefer the flattering adherence of the aristocracy in the middle of which they live, to the expression of the approbation of the people, which rarely reaches their ears. Dragged on by the force of circumstances, he was obliged to wrestle against those who stood in his way; and the more the opposition showed itself ardent, the more he gave way to the violence of his temper. Legality, moreover, was observed by nobody, as the following incident proves. Cato aspired to the prætorship. On the day of the comitia, the first century, to which the epithet of prœrogativæ was given, and the suffrage of which exercised a great influence over the others, voted for him. Pompey, not doubting the same result from the other centuries, declared suddenly that he heard a clap of thunder,660 and dismissed the assembly. Some days afterwards, by purchasing votes and employing all the means of intimidation at their disposal, the new consuls caused P. Vatinius, the author of the motion which, in 695, procured for Cæsar the government of the Cisalpine province, to be elected prætor, in the place of M. Cato.661 Most of the other magistrates were similarly chosen among their creatures, and there were only two tribunes of the people, C. Ateius Capito and P. Aquilius Gallus, to represent the opposition. All these elections were conducted with a certain degree of order, troubled only once in the comitia for the ædileship. A battle took place in the Campus Martius, in which there were killed and wounded. Pompey rushed into the middle of the riot to appease it, and had his toga covered with blood. His slaves took it to his house to bring another. At the view of this blood, Julia, who was in an advanced state of pregnancy, believed that her husband had been slain, and suffered a miscarriage. This accident injured her health, but was not, as has been stated, the cause of her death, which occurred only in the year following.662

Motion of Trebonius on the Government of the Provinces.

V. There was no further resistance to the two consuls. The factions appeared to be vanquished. Cicero himself and Clodius became reconciled, and, through the mediation of Pompey and Crassus, promised reciprocal concessions.663 The moment had arrived for presenting the law which was to give provinces and armies to the two first magistrates of the Republic: the latter wished the motion to come from a tribune of the people, and they had entrusted it to C. Trebonius, who was subsequently one of Cæsar’s lieutenants. The Senate had not proceeded to the distribution of provinces before the consular elections, as the law required. Trebonius, following the example given a few years before, in the case of the government of Gaul, addressed the people, and took the initiative of the two motions, one relating to Pompey and Crassus, the other to Cæsar.

The provinces destined for the two consuls, on quitting office, were not named separately for each, but Pompey and Crassus were to arrange the partition between them: Dio Cassius even pretends that they drew lots. This assertion appears to be incorrect. An insurrection of the Vaccæi and the reduction of the revolt of Clunia664 served as a pretext to ask that Spain should be given to Pompey with four legions; Crassus was to have Syria and the neighbouring states, with a considerable army. The name of Parthians was not pronounced, but everybody knew why Crassus coveted Syria.665 Although advanced in age (he was sixty years old), he dreamt of making the conquest of the countries which extend from the Euphrates to the Indus.666 As to Cæsar, he was to be continued in his province. The duration of these governments was for five years; they conferred the power of raising Roman or allied troops, and of making war or peace.

The propositions of Trebonius were warmly combated by M. Cato, by Favonius, and by two other tribunes of the people, Ateius and Aquilius Gallus. “But Favonius,” says Plutarch, “was listened to by nobody; some were retained by their respect for Pompey and Crassus, the greater number sought to please Cæsar, and remained quiet, placing all their hopes in him.”667 The enemies of the consuls in the Senate were intimidated, and kept silence. Cicero, to avoid the discussion, had retired to the country.

In the assembly of the people, M. Cato spoke against the project of law of Trebonius, or rather he employed the two hours allowed him in declamations on the conduct of the depositaries of power. When the two hours were expired, Trebonius, who presided over the assembly, enjoined him to quit the tribune. Cato refused to obey; one of the tribune’s lictors dragged him from it; he slipped from him, and a moment after re-appeared on the rostra, trying to speak again. Trebonius ordered him to be taken to prison, and, to obtain possession of his person, it required a regular contest; but, in the midst of this tumult, Cato had gained what he wanted, namely, to make them lose a day.668

A second assembly had better success. Considerable sums had been distributed among the tribes, and armed bands were in readiness to interfere in case of need. The opposition, on their side, had omitted no preparation for disputing the victory. The tribune P. Aquilius, fearing that they might prevent him from approaching the public place, conceived the idea of hiding himself the previous evening in the Curia Hostilia, which opened upon the Forum. Trebonius, informed of this, caused the doors to be locked, and kept him in all the night and the next day.669 M. Cato, Favonius, and Ateius succeeded with great difficulty in reaching the Forum; but, unable to force a way through the crowd up to the rostra, they mounted on the shoulders of some of their clients, and began to shout that Jupiter was thundering, and that there could be no deliberation. But it was all in vain; always repulsed, but always protesting, they gave up the contest when Trebonius had proclaimed that the law was accepted by the people.670 One of its provisions decreed that Pompey should remain at Rome after his consulship, and that he should govern his province of Spain through his lieutenants. The vote was published in the midst of the most stormy tumult. Ateius was wounded in the fray, which cost the lives of several citizens; this was a thing then too frequent to produce any great sensation.

Such was the memorable struggle now commenced at Rome between the consuls and the opposition. If we judge only from certain acts of violence related by the historians, we are at first tempted to accuse Crassus and Pompey of having had recourse to a strange abuse of force; but a more attentive examination proves that they were, so to say, constrained to it by the turbulent intrigues of a factious minority. In fact, these same historians, who describe complacently the means of culpable compulsion employed by the candidates for the consulship, allow contrary assertions to escape them here and there in the sequel, which help to deface the disagreeable impression made by their narrative. Thus, according to Cicero, public opinion blamed the hostility which was exercised against Pompey and Crassus.671 Plutarch, after presenting under the most unfavourable colours the manœuvres of the consuls for the distribution of the governments of the provinces, adds: “This partition pleased all parties. The people desired that Pompey might not be sent away from Rome.”672

Cæsar might hope that the consulship of Pompey and Crassus would restore order and the supremacy of the laws: it did nothing of the sort. After having themselves so often violated legality and corrupted the elections, they sought to remedy the evil, which they had contributed to aggravate, by proposing severe measures against corruption; this tardy homage rendered to public morality was destined to remain without effect, like all the remedies which had hitherto been employed.

Pompey’s Sumptuary Law.

VI. They sought to repress extravagance by a sumptuary law, but a speech of Hortensius was sufficient to cause its rejection. The orator, after a brilliant picture of the greatness of the Republic, and of the progress of civilisation, of which Rome was the centre, proceeded to laud the consuls for their magnificence, and for the noble use they made of their immense riches.673 And, in fact, at that very moment Pompey was building the theatre which bore his name, and was giving public games, in which it seemed his wish to surpass the acts of sumptuous extravagance of the most prodigal courtiers of the Roman people.674 In these games, which lasted several days, 500 lions and eighteen elephants were slain. This spectacle inspired the mob with admiration; but it was remarked that, usually insensible to the death of the gladiators who expired under their eyes, they were affected by the cries of pain of the elephants. Cicero, who was present at these festivals, places, in the relation he addresses to one of his friends, the men and the animals on the same footing, and displays no more regret for the one than for the other, the spirit of humanity was still so little developed!675

The splendour of these games had dazzled Rome and Italy, and restored to Pompey a great part of his prestige; but the levies of troops, which he was obliged to order soon afterwards, caused great discontent. Several tribunes vainly opposed their veto; they were obliged to renounce a struggle which had Pompey, and especially Crassus, to sustain it.

Departure of Crassus for Syria.

VII. Without waiting for the end of his consulship, Crassus determined on quitting Rome; he left in the last days of October.676 As we have said, it was not the government of Syria which excited his ardour; his aim was to carry the war into the country of the Parthians, in order to acquire new glory, and obtain possession of the treasures of those rich countries.

The idea of this expedition was not new. The Parthians had long awakened the jealousy of Rome. They had extended their frontiers from the Caucasus to the Euphrates,677 and considerably increased their importance; their chief assumed, like Agamemnon, the title of king of kings. It is true that the part of Mesopotamia taken from the Parthians by Tigranes had been restored to them by Lucullus, and Pompey had renewed the treaty which made the Euphrates the frontier of the empire of the Arsacides. But this treaty had not always been respected, for it was not one of the habits of the Republic to suffer a too powerful neighbour. Nevertheless, different circumstances might, at this moment, lead the Senate to make war upon the Parthians. While A. Gabinius exercised the command in Syria, Mithridates, dethroned, on account of his cruelty, by his younger brother Orodes, had invoked the support of the proconsul; and the latter was on the point of giving it, when Pompey sent him orders to repair first into Egypt to replace Ptolemy on his throne. Mithridates, besieged in Babylon, had surrendered to his brother, who had caused him to be put to death.678 On another hand, the Parthians were always at war with the kings of Armenia, allies of the Romans. The Senate, had it the wish, was not, therefore, in want of pretexts for declaring war. It had to avenge the death of a friendly pretender, and to sustain a threatened ally. To what point could the law of nations be invoked? That is doubtful; but, for several centuries, the Republic had been in the habit of consulting its own interests much more than justice, and the war against the Parthians was quite as legitimate as the wars against Perseus, Antiochus, or Carthage.

Nevertheless, this enterprise encountered a warm opposition at Rome; the party hostile to the consuls feared the glory which it might reflect upon Crassus, and many prudent minds dreaded the perils of so distant an expedition; but Cæsar, who had inherited that passion of the ancient Romans who dreamt for their town the empire of the world, encouraged Crassus in his projects, and, in the winter of 700, he sent Publius to his father, with 1,000 picked Gaulish cavalry.

Inauspicious auguries marked the departure of the proconsul. The two tribunes of the people, C. Ateius Capito and P. Aquilius Gallus, adherents of the party of the nobles, opposed it. They had succeeded in imparting their sentiments to many of their fellow-citizens. Crassus, intimidated, took with him Pompey, whose ascendency over the people was so powerful that his presence was sufficient to put a stop to all hostile manifestation. Ateius Capito was not discouraged; he gave orders to an usher to place Crassus under arrest at the moment when he was leaving Rome. The other tribune prevented this act of violence. Then, seeing that all his efforts had failed, he had recourse to an extreme measure: he sent for a chafing-dish, and threw perfumes into it, while he pronounced against Crassus the most terrible curses. These imprecations were of a nature to strike the superstitious minds of the Romans. People did not fail to call them to memory afterwards, when news came of the Syrian disasters.

Cato proposes to deliver Cæsar to the Germans.

VIII. About the same time, the news arrived at Rome of the defeat of the Usipetes and Tencteri, of the passage of the Rhine, and of the descent in Britain; they excited a warm enthusiasm, and the Senate decreed twenty days of thanksgiving.679 The last expedition especially made a great impression on people’s minds; it was like the discovery of a new world; the national pride was flattered at learning that the legions had penetrated into an unknown country, from which immense advantages for the Republic were promised.680 Yet all were not dazzled by the military successes; some pretended that Cæsar had crossed, not the ocean, but a mere pool,681 and Cato, persevering in his hatred, proposed to deliver him to the Germans. He accused him of having attacked them at the moment when they were sending deputies, and, by this violation of the law of nations, drawn upon Rome the anger of Heaven; “they must,” he said, “turn it upon the head of the perfidious general:” an impotent diatribe, which did not prevail against the public feeling!682 Yet, as soon as Cæsar was informed of it, too sensitive, perhaps, to the insult, he wrote to the Senate a letter full of invectives and accusations against Cato. The latter at first repelled them calmly; then, taking advantage of the circumstance, he began to paint, in the darkest colours, Cæsar’s pretended designs. “It was,” he said, “neither the Germans nor the Gauls they had to fear, but this ambitious man, whose designs were apparent to everybody.” These words produced a strong impression on an auditory already prejudiced unfavourably. Nevertheless, the fear of the public opinion prevented any decision; for, according to Plutarch, “Cato made no impression outside the Senate; the people desired that Cæsar should be raised to the highest power, and the Senate, though it was of the same opinion as Cato, dared not to act, through fear of the people.”683

CHAPTER V.

EVENTS OF THE YEAR 700

Second Descent in England.

I. THE expedition to England, in 699, may be said to have been only a reconnoitring visit, showing the necessity of more numerous forces and more considerable preparations to subjugate the warlike people of Great Britain. Accordingly, before starting for Italy, Cæsar gave orders to build on the coast, and especially at the mouth of the Seine, a great number of ships fitted for the transport of troops. In the month of June he left Italy, visited his stocks where the vessels were building, appointed Boulogne as the general rendezvous of his fleet, and, while it was assembling, marched rapidly, with four legions, towards the country of the Treviri, where the inhabitants, who had rebelled against his orders, were divided into two parties, having at their head, one Indutiomarus, and the other Cingetorix. He gave the power to the latter, who was favourable to the Romans. After having thus calmed the agitation of that country, Cæsar repaired at once to Boulogne, where he found 800 ships ready to put to sea; he embarked with five legions and 2,000 cavalry, and, without any resistance, landed, as in the year before, near Deal. A first successful combat, not far from Kingston, engaged him to continue his advance, when he received information that a tempest had just destroyed part of his fleet; he then returned to the coast, took the measures necessary for repairing this new disaster, caused all his ships to be drawn on land, and surrounded them with a retrenchment adjoining to the camp. He next marched towards the Thames. On his way he encountered the Britons, who, vanquished in two successive combats, had nevertheless more than once scattered trouble and disorder through the ranks of the legions, thanks to their chariots; these engines of war, mixed with the cavalry, spread terror and disconcerted the Roman tactics. Cæsar forced the passage of the Thames at Sunbury, went to attack the citadel of Cassivellaunus near St. Albans, and obtained possession of it. Several tribes, situated to the south of that river, made their submission. Then, dreading the approach of the equinox, and especially the troubles which might break out in Gaul during his absence, he returned to the continent.

Displacement of the Army. Disaster of Sabinus.

II. Immediately on his return, he placed his legions in winter quarters: Sabinus and Cotta at Tongres; Cicero at Charleroi; Labienus at Lavacherie, on the Ourthe; Fabius at Saint-Pol; Trebonius at Amiens; Crassus at Montdidier; Plancus at Champlieu; and, lastly, Roscius in the country of Séez. This displacement of the army, rendered necessary by the difficulty of provisioning it, separated by great distances the quarters from each other, though all, except that of Roscius, were comprised in a radius of 100 miles.

As in the preceding years, Cæsar believed he might repair into Italy; but Gaul still chafed under the yoke of the foreigner, and, while the people of Orleans massacred Tasgetius, who had been given them for their king three years before, events of a more serious character were in preparation in the countries situate between the Rhine and the Meuse. The people of Liége, led by Ambiorix and Cativolcus, revolt and attack, at Tongres, the camp occupied by Sabinus and Cotta with fifteen cohorts. Unable to take it by assault, they have recourse to stratagem: they spread abroad the report of the departure of Cæsar, and of the revolt of the whole of Gaul; they offer the two lieutenants to let them go, without obstacle, to rejoin the nearest winter quarters. Sabinus assembles a council of war, in which Cotta, an old experienced soldier, refused all arrangement with the enemy; but, as often happens in such meetings, the majority rallies to the least energetic opinion; the fifteen cohorts, trusting in the promise of the Gauls, abandon their impregnable position, and begin their march. On arriving at the defile of Lowaige, they are attacked and massacred by the barbarians, who had placed themselves in an ambuscade in the woods. Ambiorix, emboldened by this success, raises all the peoples on his way, and hastens, at Charleroi, to attack the camp of Cicero. The legion, though taken unexpectedly, defends itself bravely, but the Gauls have learnt from deserters the art of besieging fortresses in the Roman manner; they raise towers, construct covered galleries, and surround the camp with a countervallation. Meanwhile Cicero has found the means of informing Cæsar of his critical position. The latter was at Amiens; the morrow of the day on which he receives this news, he starts with two legions, and sends a Gaul to announce his approach. The assailants, informed on their part of Cæsar’s march, abandon the siege, and go to meet him. The two armies encounter near the little stream of the Haine, at fourteen kilomètres from Charleroi. Shut up in his retrenchments on Mont Sainte-Aldegonde, Cæsar counterfeits fear, in order to provoke the Gauls to attack him; and when they rush upon the ramparts to storm them, he sallies out through all the gates, puts the enemies to the rout, and strews the ground with their dead. The same day he rejoins Cicero, congratulates the soldiers on their courage, and his lieutenant for having been faithful to the Roman principle of never entering into negotiation with an enemy in arms. For the moment this victory defeated at one blow the aggressive attempts of the populations on the banks of the Rhine against Labienus, and those of the maritime peoples on the coasts of the Straits against Roscius; but soon new disturbances arose: the inhabitants of the state of Sens expelled Cavarinus, whom Cæsar had given them for king; and, a little later, Labienus was forced to combat the inhabitants of the country of Trèves, whom he defeated in an engagement in which Indutiomarus was slain. With the exception of the peoples of Burgundy and Champagne, all Gaul was in fermentation, which obliged Cæsar to pass the winter in it.