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.

[1197] Appian, _Civil Wars_, II. 12.

[1198] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 20.

[1199] “He (Ariovistus) knows, by his messengers, that in causing Cæsar’s death he would gratify a number of great persons at Rome; his death would win to him their favour and friendship.” (Cæsar, _War in Gaul_, I. 44.)

[1200] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 12.

[1201] Cicero, _Letters to Quintus_, I. 2.

[1202] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 23; _Nero_, 2.

[1203] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 23.--Valerius Maximus, III. 7, 9.

[1204] “At the gates of Rome there was a general invested with authority for many years, and at the head of a great army (_cum magno exercitu_). Was he my enemy? I do not say he was; but I knew that when people said so, he was silent.” (Cicero, _Oration after his return in the Senate_, 13.)--“Oppressos, vos, inquit, tenebo _exercitu_ Cæsaris.” (Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 16.)--“Clodius said he would invade the curia at the head of Cæsar’s _army_.” (Cicero, _Oration on the Report of the Augurs_, 22.)--“Cæsar had already gone out of Rome _with his army_.” (Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 17.)

[1205] In several passages of Cicero’s letters, Cæsar is represented as being at the gates of Rome at the head of his army; and yet we know from his _Commentaries_ that at the beginning of the war in Gaul he had only four legions, of which one was stationed on the banks of the Rhine, and the three others at Aquileia, in Illyria. It is, therefore, difficult to understand how he could have had troops at the gates of Rome, of which no further mention is made in the course of his campaign. The only way to reconcile the letters of Cicero with the _Commentaries_ is to allow that Cæsar, independently of the legions which he found beyond the frontiers of Italy, summoned to his standard the volunteers and Roman veterans who were desirous of following him. Mustering at the gate of Rome, they joined him subsequently in Gaul, and were merged in the legions. This supposition is the more probable, as in 700, when the question of re-electing Pompey and Crassus to the consulship was brought forward, Cæsar sent to Rome a great number of soldiers to vote in the comitia. Hence, as all the legions had been recruited in Cisalpine Gaul, the inhabitants of which did not possess the right of Roman city, he must have had other Roman citizens in his army. Besides, if Cæsar appealed to the veterans, he only followed the example of nearly all the Roman generals, and among others of Scipio, Flamininus, and Marius. In fact, when Cornelius Scipio departed for the war against Antiochus, there were five thousand volunteers at the gates of Rome--citizens as well as allies--who had served in all the campaigns of his brother, Scipio Africanus. (Titus Livius, XXXVII. 4.)--“When Flamininus left to join the legions in Macedonia, he took with him three thousand veterans who had fought against Hannibal and Hasdrubal.” (Plutarch, _Flamininus_, III.)--“Marius, before leaving for the war against Jugurtha, appealed to all the bravest soldiers of Latium. He knew most of them for having served under his eyes, and the rest by reputation. By force of solicitation, he obliged even the veterans to go with him.” (Sallust, _War of Jugurtha_, LXXXIV.)

[1206] “At the present moment he (Clodius) is agitating and raging; he knows not what he wants; he makes hostile demonstrations on this side and on that, and seems to intend to leave to chance where he shall strike. When he gives a thought to the unpopularity of the present state of things, you would say he was going to fly at the authors of it; but when he sees on which side are the means of action and the armed force, he turns round against us.” (Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 22.)

[1207] These clubs (_collegia compitalitia_) had an organisation which was almost military, divided into districts, and composed exclusively of the proletaries. (See Mommsen, _Roman History_, III. 290.)--“The slaves enrolled under pretence of forming corporations.” (Cicero, _Oration after his return in the Senate_, 13.)

[1208] An exception, however, was made in 690, in favour of the corporations of artisans. (Asconius, _In Pisone_, IV. p. 7; _In Corneliana_, p. 75, edit. Orelli.)

[1209] Cicero, _Oration against Piso_, 4.--Asconius, _On the Oration of Cicero against Piso_, pp. 7, 8, edit. Orelli.--Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 13.

[1210] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 13.

[1211] Dio Cassius, XXXVIII. 17.

[1212] “I receive from Cæsar the most flattering invitations, asking me to join him as lieutenant.” (Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 17.)--“He has got my enemy (Clodius) transferred to the plebeian order: either because he was irritated to see that even his kindness could not persuade me to join his side, or because he yielded to the urgency of others. My refusal could not have been regarded as an insult, for subsequently to it he advised me, nay, even entreated me, to serve him as lieutenant. I did not accept this office, not because I thought it beneath me, but because I was far from suspecting that the State could possibly have, after Cæsar, any consuls so infamous as these (Piso and Gabinius).” (Cicero, _Oration about the Consular Provinces_, 17.)

[1213] “Thanks to the pains I take, my popularity and my strength increase daily. I do not meddle with politics in any way--not the least. My house is crowded; my friends gather round me when I go abroad; my consulate seems to be beginning afresh. It rains protestations of attachment; and my confidence is such that at times I long for the strife, which I ought always to dread.” (Cicero, _Letters to Atticus_, II. 22.)--“Let Clodius bring his accusation. Italy will rise as one man.” (Cicero, _Letters to Quintus_, I. 2.)

[1214] Cicero, _Oration against Vatinius_, 16.

[1215] Plutarch, _Pompey_, 48.

[1216] Plutarch, _Cicero_, 41.

[1217] Velleius Paterculus, II. 45.

[1218] Suetonius, XXIII.

[1219] “The rumours which preceded Pompey had caused great consternation there, because it had been said that he meant to enter the city with his army.” (Plutarch, _Pompey_, 45.)--“However, every one dreaded Pompey in the greatest degree; no one knew whether he would disband his army or not.” (Dio Cassius, XXXVII. 44.)

* * * * *

Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:

considererable=> considerable {pg 109}

acquiaed=> acquired {pg 118}

in Alterthum=> im Alterthum {pg 169 fn. 508}

There was, as we have seen, two peoples=> There were, as we have seen, two peoples {pg 227}

Titus Livis=> Titus Livius {pg 256 fn. 691}

astembly=> assembly {pg 427}

ensreaties=> entreaties {pg 427}