him in good stead in several battles, where he gained the victory only after dismounting and fighting in the front rank of his legions. Thus immense physical energy and unceasing activity enabled him almost to overcome a slight delicacy of constitution, and even a tendency to epilepsy. The latter asserted itself toward the end of his life, after he had passed his physical prime. Used Vast Cæsar had no love of money for itself, but money meant power, and therefore he needed and expended vast sums of it. He had no scruples about using it to further his political advancement. It is a surprising evidence of the faith men had in his future, from the beginning, that persons were found to lend him large amounts, which they could not expect to see repaid unless he should succeed. The time came when he not only paid his own debts, but also became the creditor of half the men of his age. Money to him was always a means to an end, and he borrowed it, loaned it, or gave it away with lavishness. He showed the same cool audacity, the same steady nerve, in financial dealings as in the game of politics or the strategy of war. Ambition His ruling passion was ambition, "that last infirmity of noble minds." For this he could afford to 66 scorn delights and live laborious days." He would rule his country, but for his country's good. His conquest of Gaul for Rome created modern France, and stemmed the tide of barbarian invasion for centuries. At the same time it trained an invincible army devoted to its leader, by whose support he made himself master of the world. Relentless in Pursuit of his Objects Whatever stood between Cæsar and his object must yield or be destroyed. This was why he slew one million and enslaved a second million of the three million barbarians with whom he fought. The ruthless thoroughness of his methods accomplished his pur pose once for all. Gaul never again had to be conquered It has been a stronghold of civilization by the Romans. from Cæsar's day to ours. toward Citizens Toward his fellow citizens his conduct was marked by extraordinary clemency. Here he is in strong contrast with his predecessors and his contemporaries. Clemency His cruelty to barbarians was characteristic of his age and nation, his mercy was all his own. He invited to dinner the poets who libeled him; he shed tears at Pompey's death; he was disappointed that Cato by suicide put forgiveness out of his power; he spared his enemies in the hour of his triumph, and some of them were among his assassins. Social Grace In social relations he was a gentleman of perfect breeding. His delicate courtesy made him eat rancid oil at dinner rather than allow his host's feelings to be hurt. His imperturbable amiability made it impossible to irritate him into undignified conduct. When his tried and trusted lieutenant Labienus deserted him in the Civil War, Cæsar sent the traitor's baggage after him, with his compliments. He was thoughtful for the comfort of others. Once, when traveling with a small party and overtaken by darkness, he spent the night in the rain, in order that his officer Oppius, who was unwell, might have a bed to sleep in and a roof to cover him. We can not discover that he had any definite religious faith, though he held the highest priestly offices of the state. His few references to the gods are No Religious conventional. The divinity whom he worshiped was Fortune, the goddess whom most mortals find fickle, but who was wonderfully steadfast in her favor toward Cæsar. Faith His private morals were bad, but they were those of his age and nation. iv. CESAR AS A SOLDIER Hannibal and Alexander were trained in camps from boyhood. Cæsar held no independent command till he was nearly forty. Yet he at once took his place among the four or five greatest generals in history. Began Apparently he was incapable of fear. For him difficulty was opportunity. The more pressing the danger the higher his courage rose. And he was able to communicate his confidence to his men. His Courage actions were bold in the extreme, but they were based on calculation of the chances and thorough preparation. He was like the German Field-Marshal von Moltke, whose motto was Erst wägen, dann wagen. Some of his movements in the Civil War appear rash to the reader, but if he tempted Fortune, she always rescued her favorite. Swiftness * The chief element in his uniform success was his swiftness. He instantly grasped the bearings of a situation, formed his plan, and set his troops in motion. Over and over again his foes were disconcerted and defeated by his sudden appearance at times and places where he was least expected. His marches were amazing when we consider the baggage that a Roman legionary had to carry, and the difficulties of supplying food to a rapidly moving army in a country without good roads and al Marches most without bridges. In strategy time is everything. You must strike hard. where the enemy is weak, and quick before he is ready. As an Engineer Cæsar was a great engineer. The traces of his earthworks are still to be seen in the soil of France. His army won its triumphs by the spade as much as by * First consider, then dare. the sword. It is evident from his descriptions that he reveled in mechanical devices, and took as thorough pleasure in the clever construction of a bridge or a tower as in the planning of a campaign. Few generals have required as much from their soldiers. Their work in the trenches, their long and rapid marches, the privations they endured in siege operations, their incredible toils, are far more wonderful than their invincible valor in battle. It is harder to get men to work than to fight; per Exacted much from Soldiers severance is rarer than gallantry. About small matters Cæsar was indulgent. He was not strict to mark trivial breaches of discipline and etiquette. In essentials—obedience and courage-he was He liked to see weapons and ar Indulgent about Trifles inexorable. mor handsomely decorated. His hardworked heroes had little chance to become enervated by luxury in those eight stirring years in Gaul. He was generous and hearty in appreciation of their brave deeds, and many a private soldier and centurion is immortalized in his pages. They served him with a devotion which has hardly a parallel in history—a devotion which stopped not at certain death. When he was absent the highest incentive that could be suggested to them was an appeal to act as if their general were present. And they sometimes begged that they might be punished with the utmost severity rather than continue under his displeasure. Idolized by his Troops The impression made upon the minds of Cæsar's contemporaries by his victories was unique. The West and the North were regions of mystery and terror. Thence came the dreaded barbarians, feared with so good reason all through the history of Rome. Often had Southern Europe and even Asia been desolated by their ferocious invasions. Beyond the barbarians were the dark regions of the unknown, Impression made by his Victories peopled with giants, monsters of land and sea. No wonder that the longest thanksgivings ever decreed were voted as the news came, year after year, how Cæsar was not merely defeating but subjugating the terrible Gauls, and even carrying his victorious banners into the shadowy realms of the Germans and Britons. Pompey's Thus Cæsar waxed while Pompey waned; faces turn rather to the rising than the setting sun. Pompey's chief victories had been won in the unwarlike East, the land whence Cæsar afterward sent his contemptuous report, Veni, vidi, vici; and his laurels were faded now, while Cæsar's were fresh every season. So it was natural that the party of the aristocrats with growing alarm realized that their day of power would be over when the conqueror of Gaul came home to reward his friends and reckon with his enemies. Cæsar in Long ago he reckoned with his enemies and then passed away to his own account, but the thoughts of men have been busy with him ever since. His name has become an imperial title, and the greatest princes of the earth have been called Cæsar or Soldiers have pored over his story of warfare, and thought: History Kaiser. "Truly a wonderful man was this Caius Julius Cæsar." The wisest men have best realized his greatness. Dante, who put all the thoughts of the Middle Ages into the greatest of all poems, makes Cæsar the representative of law and government. Shakespeare's notion of him is in the words that Cassius utters so bitterly: Generation after generation of schoolboys have been made to read the story of Cæsar's wars in Gaul, chiefly in order |