The Mentor Julius Caesar 4

The Mentor Julius Caesar 4

In the Capitoline Museum, Rome]

 

Rome became a great city with a population of about a million, who

had gathered from all parts of the empire. Some had come as slaves,

others to seek their fortunes, while others had been driven from the

surrounding districts by the pinch of poverty. As freemen could find

little work in the city, there grew up a great mob of idlers, who lived

in large part on food doled out to them by the state as the price of

their votes.

 

The ruling class was represented by the Senate, which was the chief

governing body. Generally the senators were the most cultured and

intelligent people at Rome; but they had all the faults of a narrow

plutocracy; through long enjoyment of wealth and power the class was

thoroughly corrupted and enfeebled. Hence the Senate proved incapable

of governing and protecting the empire and even of preventing the

frequent outbreaks of anarchy in the capital.

 

[Illustration: TEMPLE OF JUPITER--CAPITOLINE

 

As it appeared in the time of Cæsar]

 

 

_Early Life of Cæsar_

 

Such in brief was the world in which Gaius Julius Cæsar lived (100-44

B. C.) Belonging to the bluest-blooded aristocracy, he began life

with all the advantages of wealth and family repute. As a boy and

youth he enjoyed the best education of the time. It consisted mainly

in the study and imitation of Greek writers, especially orators,

in preparation for a career as public speaker and statesman. Rome

had derived her civilization from Greece; and every business man or

diplomatist had to speak the Greek language, which was the chief medium

of communication throughout the Mediterranean world.

 

In company with other young aristocrats Cæsar in early life indulged

in all the dissipations and vices of his class. The foppish negligence

of his attire proclaimed him a rake, while exorbitant luxuries, costly

entertainments, forbidden love-intrigues, gambling--in brief, the

indulging of a great variety of expensive tastes--exhausted his fortune

and loaded him with debts so portentous that he could never hope to pay

them by legal means. Through all these immoralities he kept a sound

mind and a body capable of extreme activity and endurance, though in

his later years he was subject to fainting and to epileptic fits.

 

The clearness and quickness of his intelligence was such that he could

carry on several lines of thought and keep a number of stenographers[1]

occupied simultaneously with his dictations. These extraordinary mental

powers enabled him to master the most complex political situations

and on the battlefield to turn many a defeat into victory. For the

knowledge necessary to his manifold activities he devoured the contents

of a multitude of books on a great variety of subjects. He was an

orator of splendid power, a writer of clear and simple Latin, a man

of scientific taste, interested in the customs and character of the

peoples with whom he came in contact, and in the phenomena of nature;

a general with few equals in the world’s history, and a statesman

variously estimated by modern historians.

 

[1] In that age stenography was a well-developed art, essential to

the work of a secretary.

 

[Illustration: THE ROMAN FORUM (restored), northwest side]

 

[Illustration: From History of Rome, by G. W. Botsford, The Macmillan

Co., Publishers

 

A ROMAN FEAST]

 

At the beginning of his career he cast his lot with the popular party.

This policy meant little more than a preference for dealing with the

Assembly rather than with the Senate. In theory the Assembly comprised

all the citizens; practically it was attended by the idler members of

the populace. There was no democracy; for those citizens that lived too

far from Rome to attend the Assembly had no voice in the government,

and the vast majority of people in the empire were subjects. It was

expected that a leader of the popular party should propose to the

Assembly bills for the benefit of the masses of citizens, particularly

of the populace, and for checking the powers and privileges of the

aristocracy.

 

Cæsar was by no means a believer in human equality. Speaking in early

life at the funeral of an aunt, he gave the following account of his

family’s genealogy: “My aunt Julia derived her lineage on her mother’s

side from a race of kings, and on her father’s side from the immortal

gods; for her mother’s family trace their origin to King Ancus Marcius,

and her father’s to Venus, of whose stock we are a branch. We unite in

our pedigree, accordingly, the sacred majesty of kings, who are the

most exalted among men, and the divine majesty of gods, to whom kings

themselves are subject.” Men of such pretensions could never descend to

the level of peasants and artisans, nor believe that the world would

benefit by popular rule.

 

[Illustration: POMPEY

 

In the Palazzo Spada, Rome]

 

 

_His Wars and His Consulship_

 

Through an attractive personality, political intrigue sometimes verging

dangerously on conspiracy, and the lavish use of borrowed money, Cæsar

rapidly made his way upward through the higher offices in the routine

order. In those times the surest avenue to political power was success

in military command; and for the years 61-60 B. C. Cæsar was appointed

governor of “Farther Spain.” On his arrival he found his province

at peace; but he managed to stir up trouble with some neighboring

tribes of mountaineers who were beyond the border of the empire. After

imposing upon them orders that they could not obey, he made war upon

them. They had little wealth to plunder, but he took captive great

numbers, whom he sold into slavery. As governor he found other ways

of making money, mostly illegal; so that he was able to reward his

soldiers, pay his huge debts, and have something left for the future.

In this policy he acted like former governors, but with greater

cleverness.

 

[Illustration: JULIUS CÆSAR

 

In the National Museum, Naples]

 

Returning to Rome, he gained the Consulship, which was the highest

standing office (59 B. C.) There were two consuls; and his colleague

was Bibulus, a stupid person, who chanced to be a political

adversary. For the first time Cæsar was in a position to display

his statesmanship. Two great problems were pressing, the economic

improvement of the masses throughout the empire and their protection

from the greedy oppression of Roman officials. Against the obstruction

of his colleague Cæsar carried a law through the Assembly for the

division of large tracts of public land among the needier citizens--a

measure which brought him great popularity. Although it did nothing to

benefit the subjects, it was a step in the right direction. Another

law, worked out in great detail, aimed to prevent officers of the

empire from committing extortion upon the subjects. Though doubtless

well intended, this law proved ineffective because no one in power

cared to enforce it. Most of his consular year, however, he devoted to

winning influential friends and to securing for himself an opportunity

for further military exploits after the expiration of his Consulship.

The territory placed under his government for this purpose included

especially Cisalpine Gaul--substantially the Po Basin--and Narbonensis,

a strip of land extending along the southern coast of Gaul, now France.

 

Disturbances beyond his borders gave him a pretext for war, which

lasted eight years (58-50 B. C.), and which resulted in the conquest

of Gaul. In accomplishing this end Cæsar employed his most brilliant

generalship, including lightning-like movements and daring strategy.

When we consider that he had had little experience in warfare, we must

regard his achievements as marvellous. The conquest was accompanied

by great cruelty to the conquered. On one occasion more than fifty

thousand captives were sold into slavery; on another he beheaded the

senators of a conquered community and sold all the people as slaves.

At another time he massacred an entire tribe, numbering more than four

hundred thousand men, women, and children. The plunder, and especially

the sale of captives, brought the victor enormous wealth, a part of

which he devoted to buying supporters at Rome. After overawing Gaul

with terrorism he adopted a policy of conciliation, by which he won the

fidelity of the survivors. Although in entering upon the conquest Cæsar

had merely his own aggrandizement in mind, he must in the end have come

to an appreciation of the value of the new province to the empire. Even

after the vast slaughter and enslavement of the bravest Gauls, the

survivors were full of vitality. The country was rich in agricultural

and mineral resources, and the Rhone River formed a convenient outlet

for the country’s products in the direction of Rome. This acquisition

added great strength to the empire, and prepared the ground for the

extension of Roman civilization into western and central Europe. The

conquest was, in fact, the greatest achievement of Cæsar’s genius.

 

[Illustration: From History of Rome, by G. W. Botsford, The Macmillan

Co., Publishers

 

WARFARE IN CÆSAR’S TIME]

 

[Illustration: ROMAN LEGIONARY SOLDIER

 

From Duruy’s “History of Rome”]

 

[Illustration: GALLIC SOLDIER]

 

No sooner had he finished this work than he came to blows with the

Senate, which feared his towering ambition. A civil war ensued (49-45

B. C.) The champion of the Senate was Pompey, who also had met with

great success in war. Though in appearance the struggle was between

Cæsar and the Republic, its real object was to determine which of the

two leading generals should be master of the Roman world. Pompey was

defeated and killed; and in the end Cæsar subdued the whole empire

to his will. He ruled as Dictator, appointed to that office by the submissive Senate.