It must be remembered from the beginning that C?sar wrote only of what he did or of what he caused to be done himself. At least he only so wrote in the two works of his which remain to us. We are told that he produced much besides his Commentaries,—among other works, a poem,—but the two Commentaries are all of his that we have. The former, in seven books, relates the facts of his seven first campaigns in Gaul for seven consecutive8 years; those campaigns in which he reduced the nations living between the Rhine, the Rhone, the Mediterranean9, the Pyrenees, and the sea which we now call the British Channel.[1] The latter Commentary relates the circumstances of the civil war in which he contended for power against Pompey, his former colleague, with Crassus, in the first triumvirate, and established that empire to which Augustus succeeded after a second short-lived triumvirate between himself and Lepidus and Antony.
It is the object of this little volume to describe C?sar’s Commentaries for the aid of those who do not read Latin, and not to write Roman history; but it may be well to say something, in a few introductory lines, of the life and character of our author. We are all more or less familiar with the name of Julius C?sar. In our early days we learned that he{4} was the first of those twelve Roman emperors with whose names it was thought right to burden our young memories; and we were taught to understand that when he began to reign10 there ceased to exist that form of republican government in which two consuls12 elected annually13 did in truth preside over the fortunes of the empire. There had first been seven kings,—whose names have also been made familiar to us,—then the consuls, and after them the twelve C?sars, of whom the great Julius was the first. So much we all know of him; and we know, too, that he was killed in the Capitol by conspirators14 just as he was going to become emperor, although this latter scrap15 of knowledge seems to be paradoxically at variance16 with the former. In addition to this we know that he was a great commander and conqueror17 and writer, who did things and wrote of them in the “veni, vidi, vici” style—saying of himself, “I came, I saw, I conquered.” We know that a great Roman army was intrusted to him, and that he used this army for the purpose of establishing his own power in Rome by taking a portion of it over the Rubicon, which little river separated the province which he had been appointed to govern from the actual Roman territory within which, as a military servant of the magistrates18 of the republic, he had no business to appear as a general at the head of his army. So much we know; and in the following very short memoir19 of the great commander and historian, no effort shall be made,—as has been so frequently and so painfully done for us in late years,—to upset the teachings of our youth, and to{5} prove that the old lessons were wrong. They were all fairly accurate, and shall now only be supplemented by a few further circumstances which were doubtless once learned by all school-boys and school-girls, but which some may perhaps have forgotten since those happy days.
Dean Merivale, in one of the early chapters of his admirable history of the Romans under the Empire, declares that Caius Julius C?sar is the greatest name in history. He makes the claim without reserve, and attaches to it no restriction20, or suggestion that such is simply his own opinion. Claims of this nature, made by writers on behalf of their pet-heroes, we are, all of us, generally inclined to dispute; but this claim, great as it is, can hardly be disputed. Dr Merivale does not say that C?sar was the greatest man that ever lived. In measuring such supremacy21, men take for themselves various standards. To satisfy the judgment22 of one, it is necessary that a poet should be selected; for another, a teacher of religion; for a third, some intellectual hero who has assisted in discovering the secrets of nature by the operations of his own brain; for a fourth, a ruler,—and so on. But the names of some of these cannot be said to be great in history. Homer, Luther, Galileo, and Charles V., are great names,—as are also Shakespeare, Knox, Queen Elizabeth, and Newton. Among these, the two rulers would probably be the least in general admiration23. But no one can assert that the names of the poets, divines, and philosophers, are greater than theirs in history. The Dean means that of all men who have lived, and whose deeds are known{6} to us, Julius C?sar did most to move the world; and we think that the Dean is right. Those whom we might, perhaps, compare with C?sar, are Alexander, Charlemagne, Cromwell, Napoleon, and Washington. In regard to the first two, we feel, when claims are made for them, that they are grounded on the performance of deeds only partially24 known to us. In the days of Alexander, history was still dark,—and it had become dark again in those of Charlemagne. What Cromwell did was confined to our own islands, and, though he was great for us, he does not loom25 as large before the eyes of mankind in general as does one who moved all Europe, present and future. If there be any fair antagonist26 to C?sar in this claim, it is Napoleon. As a soldier he was equally great, and the area of his operations was as extended. But there is an old saying which tells us that no one can be sure of his fortune till the end shall have come; and C?sar’s death on the steps of the Capitol was more in accordance with our ideas of greatness than that of Napoleon at St Helena. We cannot, moreover, but feel that there were fewer drawbacks from greatness in the personal demeanour of the Roman “Imperator” and Dictator than in that of the French Emperor. For Julius C?sar was never really emperor, in that sense in which we use the word, and in accordance with which his successor Augustus really became an emperor. As to Washington, we may perhaps allow that in moral attributes he was the greatest of all. To aid his country he dared all,—even a rebel’s disgraceful death, had he not succeeded where success was most improbable;{7} and in all that he attempted he succeeded. His is the name that culminates28 among those of the men who made the United States a nation, and does so by the eager consent of all its people. And his work came altogether from patriotism,—with no alloy29 of personal ambition. But it cannot be said that the things he did were great as those which were done by C?sar, or that he himself was as potent30 in the doing of them. He ventured everything with as grand a purpose as ever warmed the heart of man, and he was successful; but the things which he did were in themselves small in comparison with those effected by his less noble rival for fame. Mommsen, the German historian, describes C?sar as a man too great for the scope of his intelligence and power of delineation31. “The historian,” he says, speaking of C?sar, “when once in a thousand years he encounters the perfect, can only be silent regarding it.” Napoleon also, in his life of C?sar, paints his hero as perfect; but Napoleon when doing so is, in fact, claiming godlike perfection for that second C?sar, his uncle. And the perfection which he claims is not that of which Mommsen speaks. The German intends to convey to us his conviction that C?sar was perfect in human capacity and intelligence. Napoleon claims for him moral perfection. “We may be convinced,” says the Emperor, “by the above facts, that during his first consulate32, one only motive33 animated34 C?sar,—namely, the public interest.” We cannot, however, quite take the facts as the Emperor of the French gives them to us, nor can we share his conviction; but the common consent{8} of reading men will probably acknowledge that there is in history no name so great as that of Julius C?sar,—of whose written works some account is intended to be given in the following chapters.
He was born just one hundred years before Christ, and came of an old noble Roman family, of which Julius and not C?sar was the distinctive35 name. Whence came the name of C?sar has been a matter of doubt and of legend. Some say that it arose from the thick hair of one of the Julian tribe; others that a certain scion36 of the family, like Macduff, “was from his mother’s womb untimely ripped,” for which derivations Latin words are found to be opportune37. Again we are told that one of the family once kept an elephant,—and we are referred to some eastern language in which the word for elephant has a sound like C?sar. Another legend also rose from C?sar’s name, which, in the Gallic language of those days,—very luckily for C?sar,—sounded as though one should say, “Send him back.” C?sar’s horse once ran away with him, and carried him over to the enemy. An insolent38 Gaul, who knew him, called out, “C?sar, C?sar!” and so the other Gauls, obeying the order supposed to be given, allowed the illustrious one to escape. It must be acknowledged, however, that the learned German who tells us this story expresses a contemptuous conviction that it cannot be true. Whatever may have produced the word, its significance, derived39 from the doings and writings of Caius Julius, has been very great. It has come to mean in various languages the holder40 of despotic power; and though it is said that, as a fact, the Russian title{9} Czar has no connection with the Roman word, so great is the prestige of the name, that in the minds of men the popular appellation41 of the Russian Emperor will always be connected with that of the line of the Roman Emperor.
C?sar was the nephew by marriage of that Marius who, with alternations of bloody42 successes and seemingly irreparable ruin, had carried on a contest with Sulla for supreme43 power in the republic. Sulla in these struggles had represented the aristocrats44 and patricians46,—what we perhaps may call the Conservative interest; while Marius, whose origin was low, who had been a common soldier, and, rising from the ranks, had become the darling of the army and of the people, may perhaps be regarded as one who would have called himself a Liberal, had any such term been known in those days. His liberality,—as has been the case with other political leaders since his time,—led him to personal power. He was seven times Consul11, having secured his seventh election by atrocious barbarities and butcherings of his enemies in the city; and during this last consulship47 he died. The young C?sar, though a patrician45 by birth, succeeded his uncle in the popular party, and seems from a very early age,—from his very boyhood,—to have looked forward to the power which he might win by playing his cards with discretion48.
And very discreet49 he was,—self-confident to a wonderful degree, and patient also. It is to be presumed that most of our readers know how the Roman Republic fell, and the Roman Empire became established as the result of the civil wars which began with Marius{10} and ended with, that “young Octavius” whom we better recognise as Augustus C?sar. Julius C?sar was the nephew by marriage of Marius, and Augustus was the great-nephew and heir of Julius. By means of conscriptions and murders, worse in their nature, though less probably in number, than those which disgraced the French Revolution, the power which Marius achieved almost without foresight50, for which the great C?sar strove from his youth upwards51 with constant foresight, was confirmed in the hands of Augustus, and bequeathed by him to the emperors. In looking back at the annals of the world, we shall generally find that despotic power has first grown out of popular movement against authority. It was so with our own Cromwell, has twice been so in the history of modern France, and certainly was so in the formation of the Roman Empire. In the great work of establishing that empire, it was the mind and hand and courage of C?sar that brought about the result, whether it was for good or evil. And in looking at the lives of the three men—Marius, C?sar, and Augustus, who followed each other, and all worked to the same end, the destruction of that oligarchy52 which was called a Republic in Rome—we find that the one was a man, while the others were beasts of prey53. The cruelties of Marius as an old man, and of Augustus as a young one, were so astounding54 as, even at this distance, to horrify55 the reader, though he remembers that Christianity had not yet softened56 men’s hearts. Marius, the old man, almost swam in the blood of his enemies, as also did his rival Sulla; but the young Octavius, he whom the gods favoured so{11} long as the almost divine[2] Augustus, cemented his throne with the blood of his friends. To complete the satisfaction of Lepidus and Antony, his comrades in the second triumvirate, he did not scruple57 to add to the list of those who were to die, the names of the nearest and dearest to him. Between these monsters of cruelty—between Marius and Sulla, who went before him, and Octavius and Antony who followed him—C?sar has become famous for clemency58. And yet the hair of the reader almost stands on end with horror as C?sar recounts in page after page the stories of cities burned to the ground, and whole communities slaughtered59 in cold blood. Of the destruction of the women and children of an entire tribe, C?sar will leave the unimpassioned record in one line. But this at least may be said of C?sar, that he took no delight in slaughter60. When it became in his sight expedient61 that a people should suffer, so that others might learn to yield and to obey, he could give the order apparently62 without an effort. And we hear of no regrets, or of any remorse63 which followed the execution of it. But bloodshed in itself was not sweet to him. He was a discreet, far-seeing man, and could do without a scruple what discretion and caution demanded of him.
And it may be said of C?sar that he was in some sort guided in his life by sense of duty and love of country; as it may also be said of his great contemporaries, Pompey and Cicero. With those who went{12} before him, Marius and Sulla, as also with those who followed him, Antony and Augustus, it does not seem that any such motives64 actuated them. Love of power and greed, hatred65 of their enemies and personal ambition, a feeling that they were urged on by their fates to seek for high place, and a resolve that it was better to kill than be killed, impelled66 them to their courses. These feelings were strong, too, with C?sar, as they are strong to this day with statesmen and with generals; but mingled67 with them in C?sar’s breast there was a noble idea, that he would be true to the greatness of Rome, and that he would grasp at power in order that the Roman Empire might be well governed. Augustus, doubtless, ruled well; and to Julius C?sar very little scope for ruling was allowed after his battling was done; but to Augustus no higher praise can be assigned than that he had the intelligence to see that the temporary wellbeing of the citizens of Rome was the best guarantee for his own security.
Early in life C?sar lifted himself to high position, though he did so in the midst of dangers. It was the wonder of those around him that Sulla did not murder him when he was young,—crush him while he was yet, as it were, in his shell; but Sulla spared him, and he rose apace. We are told that he became priest of Jupiter at seventeen, and he was then already a married man. He early trained himself as a public orator5, and amidst every danger espoused68 the popular cause in Rome. He served his country in the East,—in Bithynia, probably,—escaping, by doing so, the perils69 of a residence in the city. He became Qu?stor and then{13} ?dile, assisted by all the Marian party, as that party would assist the rising man whom they regarded as their future leader. He attacked and was attacked, and was “indefatigable in harassing70 the aristocracy,”[3] who strove, but strove in vain, to crush him. Though young, and addicted71 to all the pleasures of youth,—a trifler, as Sulla once called him,—he omitted to learn nothing that was necessary for him to know as a chief of a great party and a leader of great armies. When he was thirty-seven he was made Pontifex Maximus, the official chief of the priesthood of Rome, the office greatest in honour of any in the city, although opposed by the whole weight of the aristocracy, and although Catulus was a candidate, who, of all that party, was the highest not only in renown72 but in virtue73. He became Pr?tor the next year, though again he was opposed by all the influence of those who feared him. And, after his twelve months of office, he assumed the government of Spain,—the province allotted74 to him as Propr?tor, in accordance with the usage of the Republic,—in the teeth of a decree of the Senate ordering him to remain in Rome. Here he gained his first great military success, first made himself known to his soldiery, and came back to Rome entitled to the honour of a triumph.
But there was still another step on the ladder of the State before he could assume the position which no doubt he already saw before him. He must be Consul before he could be the master of many legions, and in{14} order that he might sue in proper form for the consulship, it was necessary that he should abandon his Triumph. He could only triumph as holding the office of General of the Republic’s forces, and as General or Imperator he could not enter the city. He abandoned the Triumph, sued for his office in the common fashion, and enabled the citizens to say that he preferred their service to his personal honours. At the age of forty-one he became Consul. It was during the struggle for the consulship that the triumvirate was formed, of which subsequent ages have heard so much, and of which Romans at the time heard probably so little. Pompey, who had been the political child of Sulla, and had been the hope of the patricians to whom he belonged, had returned to Rome after various victories which he had achieved as Proconsul in the East, had triumphed,—and had ventured to recline on his honours, disbanding his army and taking to himself the credit of subsiding75 into privacy. The times were too rough for such honest duty, and Pompey found himself for a while slighted by his party. Though he had thought himself able to abandon power, he could not bear the loss of it. It may be that he had conceived himself able to rule the city by his influence without the aid of his legions. C?sar tempted27 him, and they two with Crassus, who was wanted for his wealth, formed the first triumvirate. By such pact76 among themselves they were to rule all Rome and all Rome’s provinces; but doubtless, by resolves within himself of which no one knew, C?sar intended even then to grasp the dominion77 of the whole in his own hands. During the{15} years that followed,—the years in which C?sar was engaged in his Gallic wars,—Pompey remained at Rome, not indeed as C?sar’s friend—for that hollow friendship was brought to an end by the death of Julia, C?sar’s daughter, whom Pompey, though five years C?sar’s elder, had married—but in undecided rivalship to the active man who in foreign wars was preparing legions by which to win the Empire. Afterwards, when C?sar, as we shall hear, had crossed the Rubicon, their enmity was declared. It was natural that they should be enemies. In middle life, Pompey, as we have seen, had married C?sar’s daughter, and C?sar’s second wife had been a Pompeia.[4] But when they were young, and each was anxious to attach himself to the politics of his own party, Pompey had married the daughter-in-law of Sulla, and C?sar had married the daughter of Cinna, who had almost been joined with{16} Marius in leading the popular party. Such having been the connection they had made in their early lives, it was natural that Pompey and C?sar should be enemies, and that the union of those two with any other third in a triumvirate should be but a hollow compromise, planned and carried out only that time might be gained.
C?sar was now Consul, and from his consular78 chair laughed to scorn the Senate and the aristocratic colleague with whom he was joined,—Bibulus, of whom we shall again hear in the Commentary on the civil war. During his year of office he seems to have ruled almost supreme and almost alone. The Senate was forced to do his bidding, and Pompey, at any rate for this year, was his ally. We already know that to pr?tors and to consuls, after their year of office in the city, were confided79 the government of the great provinces of the Republic, and that these officers while so governing were called propr?tors and proconsuls. After his pr?torship C?sar had gone for a year to southern Spain, the province which had been assigned to him, whence he came back triumphant,—but not to enjoy his Triumph. At the expiration80 of his consulship the joint81 provinces of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum were assigned to him, not for one year, but for five years; and to these was added Transalpine Gaul, by which grant dominion was given to him over all that country which we now know as Northern Italy, over Illyria to the east, and to the west across the Alps, over the Roman province already established in the south of France. This province, bounded on the north by Lake Leman and the Swiss mountains, ran{17} south, to the Mediterranean, and to the west half across the great neck of land which joins Spain to the continent of Europe. This province of Transalpine Gaul was already Roman, and to C?sar was intrusted the task of defending this, and of defending Rome itself, from the terrible valour of the Gauls. That he might do this it was necessary that he should collect his legions in that other Gaul which we now know as the north of Italy.
It does not seem that there was any preconceived idea that C?sar should reduce all Gallia beneath the Roman yoke82. Hitherto Rome had feared the Gauls, and had been subject to their inroads. The Gauls in former years had even made their way as invaders83 into the very city, and had been bought out with a ransom84. They had spread themselves over Northern Italy, and hence, when Northern Italy was conquered by Roman arms, it became a province under the name of Cisalpine Gaul. Then, during the hundred years which preceded C?sar’s wars, a province was gradually founded and extended in the south of France, of which Marseilles was the kernel85. Massilia had been a colony of Greek merchants, and was supported by the alliance of Rome. Whither such alliance leads is known to all readers of history. The Greek colony became a Roman town, and the Roman province stretched itself around the town. It was C?sar’s duty, as governor of Transalpine Gaul, to see that the poor province was not hurt by those ravaging86 Gauls. How he performed that duty he tells us in his first Commentary.
During the fourth year of his office, while Pompey{18} and Crassus, his colleagues in the then existing triumvirate, were consuls, his term of dominion over the three provinces was prolonged by the addition of five other years. But he did not see the end of the ten years in that scene of action. Julia, his daughter, had died, and his great rival was estranged87 from him. The Senate had clamoured for his recall, and Pompey, with doubtful words, had assented88, A portion of his army was demanded from him, was sent by him into Italy in obedience90 to the Senate, and shortly afterwards was placed under the command of Pompey. Then C?sar found that the Italian side of the Alps was the more convenient for his purposes, that the Hither or Cisalpine Gaul demanded his services, and that it would be well for him to be near the Rubicon. The second Commentary, in three books, ‘De Bello Civili,’ giving us his record of the civil war, tells us of his deeds and fortunes for the next two years,—the years B.C. 49 and 48. The continuation of his career as a general is related in three other Commentaries, not by his own hand, to which, as being beyond the scope of this volume, only short allusion91 will be made. Then came one year of power, full of glory, and, upon the whole, well used; and after that there came the end, of which the tale has been so often told, when he fell, stabbed by friend and foe92, at the foot of Pompey’s pillar in the Capitol.
It is only further necessary that a few words should be added as to the character of C?sar’s writings,—for it is of his writings rather than of his career that it is intended here to give some idea to those who have not{19} an opportunity of reading them. C?sar’s story can hardly be told in this little volume, for it is the history of the world as the world then was. The word which our author has chosen as a name for his work,—and which now has become so well known as connected with C?sar, that he who uses it seems to speak of C?sar,—means, in C?sar’s sense, a Memoir. Were it not for C?sar, a “Commentary” would be taken to signify that which the critic had added, rather than the work which the author had first produced. C?sar’s “Commentaries” are memoirs93 written by himself, descriptive of his different campaigns, in which he treats of himself in the third person, and tells his story as it might have been told by some accompanying scribe or secretary. This being so, we are of course driven to inquire whether some accompanying scribe or secretary may not in truth have done the work. And there is doubtless one great argument which must be powerful with us all towards the adoption94 of such a surmise95. The amount of work which C?sar had on hand, not only in regard to his campaigns, but in the conduct of his political career, was so great as to have overtasked any brain without the addition of literary labour. Surely no man was ever so worked; for the doctrine96 of the division of labour did not prevail then in great affairs as it does now. C?sar was not only a general; he was also an engineer, an astronomer97, an orator, a poet, a high priest—to whom, as such, though himself, as we are told, a disbeliever in the gods of Olympus, the intricate and complicated system of Roman worship was a necessary knowledge. And he was a politician, of whom it may be said that, though{20} he was intimately acquainted with the ferocity of opposition98, he knew nothing of its comparative leisure. We have had busy statesmen writing books, two prime ministers translating Homer, another writing novels, a fourth known as a historian, a dramatist, and a biographer. But they did not lead armies as well as the Houses of Parliament, and they were occasionally blessed by the opportunities of comparative political retirement99 which opposition affords. From the beginning of the Gallic war, C?sar was fighting in person every year but one till he died. It was only by personal fighting that he could obtain success. The reader of the following pages will find that, with the solitary100 exception of the siege of Marseilles, nothing great was done for him in his absence. And he had to make his army as well as to lead it. Legion by legion, he had to collect it as he needed it, and to collect it by the force of his own character and of his own name. The abnormal plunder101 with which it was necessary that his soldiers should be allured102 to abnormal valour and toil103 had to be given as though from his own hand. For every detail of the soldiers’ work he was responsible; and at the same time it was incumbent104 on him so to manipulate his Roman enemies at Rome,—and, harder still than that, his Roman friends,—that confusion and destruction should not fall upon him as a politician. Thus weighted, could he write his own Commentaries? There is reason to believe that there was collected by him, no doubt with the aid of his secretaries, a large body of notes which were known as the Ephemerides of C?sar,—jottings down, as we may say, taken from day to day. Were{21} not the Commentaries which bear C?sar’s name composed from these notes by some learned and cunning secretary?
These notes have been the cause of much scholastic105 wrath106 to some of the editors and critics. One learned German, hotly arguing that C?sar wrote no Ephemerides, does allow that somebody must have written down the measurements of the journeys, of the mountains, and of the rivers, the numbers also of the captives and of the slaves.[5] “Not even I,” says he,—“not even do I believe that C?sar was able to keep all these things simply in his memory.” Then he goes on to assert that to the keeping of such notes any scribe was equal; and that it was improbable that C?sar could have found time for the keeping of notes when absolutely in his tent. The indignation and enthusiasm are comic, but the reasoning seems to be good. The notes were probably collected under C?sar’s immediate107 eyes by his secretaries; but there is ample evidence that the Commentaries themselves are C?sar’s own work. They seem to have become known at once to the learned Romans of the day; and Cicero, who was probably the most learned, and certainly the best critic of the time, speaks of them without any doubt as to their authorship. It was at once known that the first seven books of the Gallic War were written by C?sar, and that the eighth was not. This seems to be conclusive108. But in addition to this, there is internal evidence. C?sar writes in the third person, and is very careful to maintain that mode of{22} expression. But he is not so careful but that on three or four occasions he forgets himself, and speaks in the first person. No other writer, writing for C?sar, would have done so. And there are certain trifles in the mode of telling the story, which must have been personal to the man. He writes of “young” Crassus, and “young” Brutus, as no scribe would have written; and he shows, first his own pride in obtaining a legion from Pompey’s friendship, and then his unmeasured disgust when the Senate demand and obtain from him that legion and another one, and when Pompey uses them against himself, in a fashion which would go far to prove the authenticity109 of each Commentary, were any proof needed. But the assent89 of C?sar’s contemporaries suffices for this without other evidence.
And it seems that they were written as the wars were carried on, and that each was published at once. Had it not been so, we could not understand that C?sar should have begun the second Commentary before he had finished the first. It seems that he was hindered by the urgency of the Civil War from writing what with him would have been the two last books of the Gallic War, and therefore put the completion of that work into the hands of his friend Hirtius, who wrote the memoir of the two years in one book. And C?sar’s mode of speaking of men who were at one time his friends and then his enemies, shows that his first Commentary was completed and out of hand before the other was written. Labienus, who in the Gallic War was C?sar’s most trusted lieutenant110, went over to the other side and served under Pompey in the Civil War. He could not have failed{23} to allude111 in some way to the desertion of Labienus, in the first Commentary, had Labienus left him and joined Pompey while the first Commentary was still in his hands.
His style was at once recognised by the great literary critic of the day as being excellent for its intended purpose. C?sar is manifestly not ambitious of literary distinction, but is very anxious to convey to his readers a narrative3 of his own doings, which shall be graphic112, succinct113, intelligible114, and sufficiently115 well expressed to insure the attention of readers. Cicero, the great critic, thus speaks of the Commentaries; “Valde quidam, inquam, probandos; nudi enim sunt, recti, et venusti, omni ornatu orationis, tanquam veste, detracto.” The passage is easily understood, but not perhaps very easily translated into English. “I pronounce them, indeed, to be very commendable116, for they are simple, straightforward117, agreeable, with all rhetorical ornament118 stripped from them, as a garment is stripped.” This was written by Cicero while C?sar was yet living, as the context shows. And Cicero does not mean to imply that C?sar’s writings are bald or uncouth119: the word “venusti” is evidence of this. And again, speaking of C?sar’s language, Cicero says that C?sar spoke120 with more finished choice of words than almost any other orator of the day. And if he so spoke, he certainly so wrote, for the great speeches of the Romans were all written compositions. Montaigne says of C?sar: “I read this author with somewhat more reverence121 and respect than is usually allowed to human writings, one while considering him in his person, by his actions and miraculous{24} greatness, and another in the purity and inimitable polish of his language and style, wherein he not only excels all other historians, as Cicero confesses, but peradventure even Cicero himself.” Cicero, however, confesses nothing of the kind, and Montaigne is so far wrong. C?sar was a great favourite with Montaigne, who always speaks of his hero with glowing enthusiasm.
To us who love to make our language clear by the number of words used, and who in writing rarely give ourselves time for condensation122, the closely-packed style of C?sar is at first somewhat difficult of comprehension. It cannot be read otherwise than slowly till the reader’s mind is trained by practice to C?sarean expressions, and then not with rapidity. Three or four adjectives, or more probably participles, joined to substantives123 in a sentence, are continually intended to convey an amount of information for which, with us, three or four other distinct sentences would be used. It is almost impossible to give the meaning of C?sar in English without using thrice as many words as he uses. The same may be said of many Latin writers,—perhaps of all; so great was the Roman tendency to condensation, and so great is ours to dilution124. But with C?sar, though every word means much, there are often many words in the same sentence, and the reader is soon compelled to acknowledge that skipping is out of the question, and that quick reading is undesirable125.
That which will most strike the ordinary English reader in the narrative of C?sar is the cruelty of the Romans,—cruelty of which C?sar himself is guilty to{25} a frightful126 extent, and of which he never expresses horror. And yet among his contemporaries he achieved a character for clemency which he has retained to the present day. In describing the character of C?sar, without reference to that of his contemporaries, it is impossible not to declare him to have been terribly cruel. From bloodthirstiness he slaughtered none; but neither from tenderness did he spare any. All was done from policy; and when policy seemed to him to demand blood, he could, without a scruple,—as far as we can judge, without a pang,—order the destruction of human beings, having no regard to number, sex, age, innocence127, or helplessness. Our only excuse for him is that he was a Roman, and that Romans were indifferent to blood. Suicide was with them the common mode of avoiding otherwise inevitable128 misfortune, and it was natural that men who made light of their own lives should also make light of the lives of others. Of all those with whose names the reader will become acquainted in the following pages, hardly one or two died in their beds. C?sar and Pompey, the two great ones, were murdered. Dumnorix, the ?duan, was killed by C?sar’s orders. Vercingetorix, the gallantest of the Gauls, was kept alive for years that his death might grace C?sar’s Triumph. Ariovistus, the German, escaped from C?sar, but we hear soon after of his death, and that the Germans resented it. He doubtless was killed by a Roman weapon. What became of the hunted Ambiorix we do not know, but his brother king Cativolcus poisoned himself with the juice of yew-tree. Crassus, the partner of C?sar and Pompey in the first triumvirate, was killed by{26} the Parthians. Young Crassus, the son, C?sar’s officer in Gaul, had himself killed by his own men that he might not fall into the hands of the Parthians, and his head was cut off and sent to his father. Labienus fell at Munda, in the last civil war in Spain. Quintus Cicero, C?sar’s lieutenant, and his greater brother, the orator, and his son, perished in the proscriptions of the second triumvirate. Titurius and Cotta were slaughtered with all their army by Ambiorix. Afranius was killed by C?sar’s soldiers after the last battle in Africa. Petreius was hacked129 to pieces in amicable130 contest by King Juba. Varro indeed lived to be an old man, and to write many books. Domitius, who defended Marseilles for Pompey, was killed in the flight after Pharsalia. Trebonius, who attacked Marseilles by land, was killed by a son-in-law of Cicero at Smyrna. Of Decimus Brutus, who attacked Marseilles by sea, one Camillus cut off the head and sent it as a present to Antony. Curio, who attempted to master the province of Africa on behalf of C?sar, rushed amidst his enemy’s swords and was slaughtered. King Juba, who conquered him, failing to kill himself, had himself killed by a slave. Attius Varus, who had held the province for Pompey, fell afterwards at Munda. Marc Antony, C?sar’s great lieutenant in the Pharsalian wars, stabbed himself. Cassius Longinus, another lieutenant under C?sar, was drowned. Scipio, Pompey’s partner in greatness at Pharsalia, destroyed himself in Africa. Bibulus, his chief admiral, pined to death. Young Ptolemy, to whom Pompey fled, was drowned in the Nile. The fate of his sister Cleopatra is known to all the world. Pharnaces, C?sar’s enemy in Asia, fell in battle. Cato destroyed himself at Utica. Pompey’s eldest131 son, Cn?us, was caught wounded in Spain and slaughtered. Sextus the younger was killed some years afterwards by one of Antony’s soldiers. Brutus and Cassius, the two great conspirators, both committed suicide. But of these two we hear little or nothing in the Commentaries; nor of Augustus C?sar, who did contrive132 to live in spite of all the bloodshed through which he had waded133 to the throne. Among the whole number there are not above three, if so many, who died fairly fighting in battle.
The above is a list of the names of men of mark,—of warriors134 chiefly, of men who, with their eyes open, knowing what was before them, went out to encounter danger for certain purposes. The bloody catalogue is so complete, so nearly comprises all whose names are mentioned, that it strikes the reader with almost a comic horror. But when we come to the slaughter of whole towns, the devastation135 of country effected purposely that men and women might starve, to the abandonment of the old, the young, and the tender, that they might perish on the hillsides, to the mutilation of crowds of men, to the burning of cities told us in a passing word, to the drowning of many thousands,—mentioned as we should mention the destruction of a brood of rats,—the comedy is all over, and the heart becomes sick. Then it is that we remember that the coming of Christ has changed all things, and that men now,—though terrible things have been done since Christ came to us,—are not as men were in the days of C?sar.
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1
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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2
narratives
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| 记叙文( narrative的名词复数 )； 故事； 叙述； 叙述部分 | |
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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orators
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| n.演说者，演讲家( orator的名词复数 ) | |
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orator
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| n.演说者，演讲者，雄辩家 | |
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civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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marvels
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| n.奇迹( marvel的名词复数 )；令人惊奇的事物（或事例）；不平凡的成果；成就v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的第三人称单数 ) | |
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consecutive
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| adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的 | |
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Mediterranean
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| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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consul
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| n.领事；执政官 | |
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consuls
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| 领事( consul的名词复数 )； （古罗马共和国时期）执政官 （古罗马共和国及其军队的最高首长，同时共有两位，每年选举一次） | |
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annually
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| adv.一年一次，每年 | |
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conspirators
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| n.共谋者，阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
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scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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variance
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| n.矛盾，不同 | |
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conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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magistrates
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| 地方法官，治安官( magistrate的名词复数 ) | |
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memoir
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| n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录 | |
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restriction
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| n.限制，约束 | |
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supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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loom
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| n.织布机，织机；v.隐现，(危险、忧虑等)迫近 | |
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antagonist
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| n.敌人，对抗者，对手 | |
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tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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28
culminates
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| v.达到极点( culminate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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alloy
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| n.合金，(金属的)成色 | |
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30
potent
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| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
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delineation
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| n.记述；描写 | |
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32
consulate
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| n.领事馆 | |
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33
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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distinctive
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| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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scion
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| n.嫩芽，子孙 | |
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opportune
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| adj.合适的，适当的 | |
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insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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40
holder
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| n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物 | |
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41
appellation
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| n.名称，称呼 | |
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42
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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43
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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44
aristocrats
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| n.贵族( aristocrat的名词复数 ) | |
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45
patrician
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| adj.贵族的，显贵的；n.贵族；有教养的人；罗马帝国的地方官 | |
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46
patricians
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| n.（古罗马的）统治阶层成员( patrician的名词复数 )；贵族，显贵 | |
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47
consulship
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| 领事的职位或任期 | |
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48
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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49
discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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50
foresight
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| n.先见之明，深谋远虑 | |
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51
upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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52
oligarchy
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| n.寡头政治 | |
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53
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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54
astounding
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| adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词) | |
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55
horrify
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| vt.使恐怖，使恐惧，使惊骇 | |
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56
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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57
scruple
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| n./v.顾忌，迟疑 | |
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58
clemency
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| n.温和，仁慈，宽厚 | |
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59
slaughtered
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| v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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slaughter
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| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
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61
expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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62
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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63
remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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64
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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66
impelled
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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67
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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68
espoused
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| v.（决定）支持，拥护（目标、主张等）( espouse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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harassing
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| v.侵扰，骚扰( harass的现在分词 )；不断攻击（敌人） | |
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71
addicted
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| adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的 | |
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72
renown
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| n.声誉，名望 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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allotted
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| 分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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subsiding
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的现在分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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pact
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| n.合同，条约，公约，协定 | |
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77
dominion
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| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
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consular
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| a.领事的 | |
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confided
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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expiration
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| n.终结，期满，呼气，呼出物 | |
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81
joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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82
yoke
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| n.轭；支配；v.给...上轭，连接，使成配偶 | |
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83
invaders
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| 入侵者，侵略者，侵入物( invader的名词复数 ) | |
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84
ransom
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| n.赎金，赎身；v.赎回，解救 | |
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85
kernel
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| n.(果实的)核，仁；(问题)的中心，核心 | |
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86
ravaging
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| 毁坏( ravage的现在分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫 | |
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87
estranged
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| adj.疏远的，分离的 | |
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assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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92
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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memoirs
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| n.回忆录；回忆录传( mem,自oir的名词复数) | |
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adoption
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| n.采用，采纳，通过；收养 | |
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95
surmise
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| v./n.猜想，推测 | |
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96
doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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astronomer
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| n.天文学家 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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allured
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| 诱引，吸引( allure的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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103
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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incumbent
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| adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的 | |
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scholastic
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| adj.学校的，学院的，学术上的 | |
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wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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conclusive
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| adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的 | |
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authenticity
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| n.真实性 | |
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lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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allude
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| v.提及，暗指 | |
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graphic
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| adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的 | |
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succinct
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| adj.简明的，简洁的 | |
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intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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commendable
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| adj.值得称赞的 | |
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straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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118
ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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uncouth
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| adj.无教养的，粗鲁的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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condensation
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| n.压缩，浓缩；凝结的水珠 | |
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substantives
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| n.作名词用的词或词组（substantive的复数形式） | |
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dilution
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| n.稀释，淡化 | |
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undesirable
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| adj.不受欢迎的，不良的，不合意的，讨厌的；n.不受欢迎的人，不良分子 | |
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frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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hacked
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| 生气 | |
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amicable
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| adj.和平的，友好的；友善的 | |
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eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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contrive
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| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
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waded
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| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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devastation
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| n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤 | |
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